Look: 7/10 Alright, I'm just accepting it: I'm a sucker for these early microcomputer platformers that take after Manic Miner. Tho I prefer early platformers with ways to fight back, at least this has some "power up" type aspects, and it's in the lineage of Manic Miner instead of Lode Runner or Space Panic or Donkey Kong. The Look is, well, underwhelming, but it is functional and it is very classic Speccy/C64 era, plus the main character sprite and spike sprites are well-done (tho most the enemy sprites are bland). Makes me super excited to get to NES era for better graphics, and heck, PS1 era like FF9 ahhh soo excited for that game. For now, this is what I'm working with (and yes, I'm mid-dying lol, savestated and took a screenshot real quick for this ha)

See below for a better screenshot of the character, which tbh, is the most striking part. In some ways the brick-esque platforms gave me a nice Mario feel, and the elaborate character sprite are great. But for the most part, the usual C64 affair. I like when this era of platformers do that funny, meta thing where they have irreverent or ironic or surreal or meta enemies like I saw in Son of Blagger and, when I peeked at a video, looks like Mutant Monty has: like Manic Miner where they have self-referential enemies or completely random sprites but rationalize it somehow. I just like when these early computer games don't just give me skull enemies like in this and instead accept the limitations of the times and joke around with it. Like "yea this isn't an arcade game so here's a saxophone snake as an enemy and myself as an enemy and a 7-up can" like the scissors enemy in Son of Blagger lol. Anyway, for Legend of the Knucker-Hole (what a name lol), they definitely could have done some more functional changes, like the switches more clearly being "switched" (at least a couple platforms I thought I had hit one of the switches but I hadn't argh, thank goodness for the sound effect... and thank goodness for the forgiving death mechanics). From the video I peeked at, I knew the colors get a bit more exciting and, sorta like Ms Pac-Man, later zones have a more exciting array of colors, and it felt nice to get to Zone 4 to see it

Sound: 6/10 Mostly functional, bordering on good, but that jump sound gets real annoying real fast. I kinda liked the low tone melody "jingle" thing ha. Kinda dungeon crawler-y

Play: 7/10 After how much I've been playing platformers like this, I got the controls real quickly. That being said, that was also thanks to well-done jump mechanics (thank goodness the "fall too far" mechanic actually makes sense in this unlike in Son of Blagger, and the jump length was predictable and reasonable unlike Alley Cat) and controls in general. They were tight and logical and intuitive. This isn't just a Manic Miner clone tho where you collect items on a set screen; instead, you have to hit switches to kill off enemies. That's all you do to kill them, mind you, I kept thinking I had to time the switch hits right or make them have the same color or something, but simply hit them. Even tho it got essentially repetitive, and each zone felt a bit too long before progressing, they did a good job easing in new mechanics and enemies in each zone, so it felt like a continuous progression. Plus it made new mechanics/enemies not seem so unfair or frustrating. Thank goodness the death mechanic is forgiving.

Feel: 7/10 The simple nature to the game is both a blessing and a curse: it's nice that you can pick up and play it and not think too much, especially compared to many of this era's games. But also it got a bit repetitive feeling real fast (already at level 5, definitely by Zone 2/Level 7, lol turns out L7 means how many lives left derp I was wondering why it wasn't increasing more often, making the game feel like a drag). I got an Abe's Odyssey feel when I was dodging some of the later, faster-paced laser gates, especially when you had to time them perfectly to stand right in between 2, etc. And for some reason, a lot of the precise maneuvers, like hitting a switch then quickly avoiding a spike protruding from the wall while timing correctly for a laser gate reminded me of Zelda games and Crash Bandicoot? Not sure exactly why. The little boot-esque, uh, pixels that throw an, uh, boomerang type thing back and forth to each other reminded me of those boot guys in Mario 3 that throw those awful white boomerang things (I know, I should know the proper names considering how much I played early Marios, but I don't heh). Not so much a good thing, except that it's an important feel for me heh. Even at the end of the game I kept feeling like dodging the spikes that come out of the wall reminded me of Zelda, like the controls did, hard to explain. Reminded me of the first few Zeldas and that feeling of tight quick dodges to collect something then dip. Still, like I've mentioned a few times, the mechanics feel quite repetitive with the length of the game (this took me several nights heh). Once I got to this point in the game, I was really questioning whether to go on, but luckily taking breaks helped make it feel a bit less repetitive.

As long as I took breaks, it always felt fresh and fun and exciting to accomplish those narrow dodges. Not much to the gameplay besides that, but this is my kind of early computer game for the most part. I'm realizing that though the goal of this project was to learn to appreciate genres I typically don't, it's really just turning into a history of platformers, action-adventures, adventures, and RPGs heh--the genres I already loved. But I will keep trying every game along the way, since after all I've gained more of an appreciation of shooters and arcade action games.

Attachment: 8/10 After the end of Zone 2, I decided to check out a video to see if this is neverending or what. I saw that, indeed, there was a set ending, but that it's quite lengthy. Plus, the mechanics only get more and more frustrating. Ohhhh, me and these frustrating early platformers... As good as this game was, why do I feel the need to finish these lengthy, rudimentary, and often frustrating early platformers? It wasn't a video that made me learn where the set ending was (at that point I still thought L10 etc meant Level 10 lol, as far as I can tell there isn't a clear UI way to see what Zone you're in), it was the mobygames description that clarified there are 5 zones. Nice, I read that as I was halfway through Zone 3: seemed doable even tho would have to finish tomorrow cuz it's getting late and. Like usual, I was allowing myself savestates at the start of Zones, tho I extended that to other segments because these zones are particularly long between each zone for this era. So I will be able to return to this tomorrow and finish up! Kinda ironic I keep talking about the repetitive nature to this game, cuz sure enough, at Zone 4, the gameplay changes substantially. Forget the platforming elements, forget the switches, instead now it's more like a dodge em as you climb up and collect some coins. You now can go invisible/invincible temporarily. And in the next Zone you have your jetpack at last! Kinda silly to only have the jetpack in the last Zone. They should have done some of those play elements intermittently, instead of the same formula for the first 3 Zones then suddenly change it from there. Kinda odd Zone 4 was shorter than any of the preceding Zones lol, they kinda got this all mixed around. If anything, Zone 4 should have been a bonus stage between Zones or something. I was not a fan of Zone 5 gameplay, suddenly we have the jetpack and running into platforms kills you, you can't toggle the jetpack on or off, and it suddenly became more maze-related than just a fun action platformer. Welp, after pushing through with breaks the first 4 Zones, I have no interest in pushing through Zone 5. The gameplay changes far too much and becomes basically another game. People say that's where the challenge really begins, but based on the videos that are uploaded too, it seems everyone agrees it just is too much. Maybe if you had been building up that gameplay the whole time, but every mechanic changes: no jump, no invisibility button, stuck on jetpack, suddenly you can't drop down platforms despite the whole rest of game allowing it, etc. Not a wise game design choice imo. Still, a great early platformer that can give you hours of gameplay if you're into this era.

Completion: Partway through Zone 5, Score 45,500 Playtime: ~3 hours over 3 play sessions