Cloud Kingdoms
Author
Lorenzo has written 23 additional reviews
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Written by Lorenzo
November 24, 2001
These damn arrows will make you fall down if you' re not extremely careful...
This is one of the easiest kingdoms; have some practice here first...
Time your jump carefully, or these balls will crush you in a second !
You can challenge levels in any order, so if you get stuck with a kingdom you can always leave it for later...
Ice kingdom. Bouncy, slippery and definitely cool !
You can' t jump on these magnets, so avoid the balls at all costs...
Shields can make you invulnerable for a few seconds. Use them wisely !
Comments
Ok, so here is the plot: Terry is a little, eight-way scrolling rubber ball who lives in a peaceful kingdom over the clouds. This kingdom is filled with crystals and Terry has nothing better to do than scroll around and look at these crystals all day. One day a nasty fiend, for some reason, decides that he can't stand Terry's lifestyle and steals all of the crystals from Terry's kingdom. Terry gets quite upset about this and decides to get them back. Now tell me if this isn't the most stupid plot ever! Surely those guys at Millennium didn't have much imagination...
Graphics
Big, bold, colourful sprites & backgrounds, and a smooth scrolling. Nothing really special anyway, and the menu at the bottom is too big, filling a large part of the screen. After all, it gives the impression of a Commodore 64 game ported to a 16 bit computer, and it loses some of its original charm...
Sound
A couple of average chip tunes, and sparse fx.
Gameplay
Well, the plot really sucks, but the game itself is wonderful, an under rated little gem who didn't get the success it deserved. There are more than 20 levels in which you struggle to get your little crystals back; Things aren't very easy, there's a strict time limit for each level, and little annoying billiard balls and bugs such as insects (not programming faults) that can take off some of your energy. Again, don't forget that you're a rubber ball filled with air, and therefore things like acid and fire can hurt you quite a lot.
Each level is really peculiar and has its own strategies: for example, in Chase Kingdom you're chased by bugs on a magnetic track leading to the crystals; you can't jump to avoid the nasties and you have to be quick and pay attention not to fall off the track. In Unseen Kingdom the walls are invisible and you move around trying to find a path to the crystals. In Ice Kingdom you' ll be sliding and bouncing around all the time, and so on...
This is NOT an easy game. It looks like an improved version of "Quedex", an old 8-bit milestone by Stavros Fasoulas, one of the toughest C64 games ever; you' ll need a great deal of dexterity with your joystick to get at least halfway in the game.
Conclusion
Probably one of the most underrated games in history, Cloud Kingdoms was by far my favourite C64 game, and one of the best platform games I've ever seen. The ST version doesn' t look as good as the C64 one, but it' s still very playable and addictive, and it also features a few more levels. Definitely worth a try.
Score
- Graphics: 6
- Sound: 6
- Gameplay: 8
- Overall: 7
Last Duel
August 31, 2026 by NeepieLantern
Overall, this is a mediocre conversion of a mediocre arcade machine. Despite all that, though, I actually come back to play it from time to time, just to try and get a bit further. So, it must have some appeal after all, warts and all.
Zone Warrior
February 12, 2023 by AtariCrypt
Once again, pesky aliens are giving us Earthlings lots of grief. We previously fought them off but they managed to pinch a time machine so are using that to alter history and wreak havoc by taking crucial hostages from each period in an attempt to halt their influence. From the invention of the wheel in prehistoric times to England's King Arthur uniting Britain! And where would any of us be today without Japan and its technical wizardry? Yep, we cannot allow this - the fight is on!
Son Shu Shi
March 21, 2021 by ST Graveyard
What an accomplishment this game is. Created with such a small team, the result is really amazing. The game oozes creative passion. While the gameplay is really well balanced, it is a tough cookie, very hard from time to time with its moments of sheer frustration. As of level 3, timing becomes key. You will need to practice and learn the levels to complete this game, there are so many bad guys on screen it sometimes gets a bit hard to take.