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A.P.I Review:	LUCKY LUKE
Developer:	Infogrames	OPTIONS:	SCREENSHOTS: No.1   No.2   No.3
Distributor:	Infogrames	1 Player
Game Type:	3D Platform Adventure	Memory Card
Review Date:	October 1998	Standard Joypad

Setting the Scene

Those Dalton boys have just busted out of jail again and the 
Town Mayor has just posted a reward of 1 million Dollars to get 
them back behind bars. Such is the reputation of these good for 
nothing outlaws that no one comes forward to claim the bounty.... 

That is until Lucky Luke arrives in town.

Genre

Essentially this is a 3D platformer similar to the likes of 
Pandemonium, however unlike its competitor this game also 
contains Beat-em-up, Shoot-em-up, Sports and racing elements.

Graphics

You can often tell how much money has been invested in a game 
by the quality of the intro sequence. If they know its rubbish 
then they either don't provide one at all, or keep it very short 
and sweet. Lucky Luke has a beautifully rendered intro sequence 
that obviously cost big bucks to put together. It also has 
fantastic cut scenes between the levels that further prove this 
point. 

The graphics are all very cartoon-like in their presentation and 
are a mixture of flat parallax scrolling backdrops and 3D-polygon 
scenery and characters.

Again the attention to detail in this department is very high, 
with tumbleweed rolling across the screen and clouds moving 
through the sky. The 3D effect is very subtle on the side 
scrolling levels, however it can be fully appreciated on the 
horseback scenes - which are presented in a 45 degree angle 
(like the old "Zaxxon" arcade game). Also brilliant 
is the roller coaster style of the mining wagon level, which 
is real 3D-fest.

It has to be said that although your character is based on a 
massively popular Belgian cartoon strip that has been running 
for years and years, you still can't help but notice a passing 
resemblance with the recently created "Woody" from 
the movie Toy Story.

Sounds and Effects

Within the constraints of any game there is only so much 
that can be done with the Soundtrack and Spot effects, however if 
implemented correctly they can immerse you right in the game 
- adding a terrific amount of atmosphere. Conversely, if done 
wrong - they can almost spoil it.

The soundtrack of Lucky Luke is so professionally produced that 
when played through a good sound system it will have the hairs on 
the back of your neck standing on end. Speaking as someone who 
has never appreciated any form of Country and Western music before, 
this is finger pluckin' good! Each of the nineteen tracks are 
fantastic, some feature a mouth organ player that can almost make 
his instrument talk, while others have real "Beverly Hillbillies" 
style of fast paced Banjo music. There's the "here comes the cavalry" 
penny whistle tunes, together with a few featuring the old "Honkey Tonk" 
piano and some great acoustic guitar.

Apart from a poor English voice-over (I suspect that the French 
one is brilliant), the spot effects have been treated with the same 
amount of professionalism as the soundtrack. There are a handful of 
typical cowboy phrases that Luke mutters, together with sounds such 
as the wind howling, guns being fired... and more. 

Playability

When I started to play this game I was expecting it to be a 
very average 3D Platformer - little was I to know that this game was 
to turn out to be anything but average. Sure, the first level is all 
about running, jumping and shooting; but there are puzzles galore that 
must be also be solved. Other levels introduce completely new game 
genres, making this in effect four or five different games all rolled 
into one!

To illustrate my point I will quickly run through the first few levels...

Level one is a side scrolling platform. Luke is in a typical cowboy 
setting somewhere in the Wild West, his objective is to get from 
one end of the town to the other - sounds simple but there are a 
number of obstructions to his progress. The first of these is a 
pile of wooden crates blocking his route. Behind these boxes is a 
barrel full of explosives - which if ignited would blow them out 
of your way. You stand in front of them and notice that above your 
head is a metal chimney - you fire a bullet at it and it ricochets 
off it at 90 degrees, hits the hanging blacksmiths sign which redirects 
it towards the barrel full of dynamite.... BOOM !!!! 
.... Your path is clear! 

Many of the puzzles on these platform levels follow a similar theme: 
drop a crate on the donkey who then kicks the barrel that smashes 
into the... you get the idea?

Level two sees you playing tennis with a frying pan against the 
local inbreed, who for some strange reason is throwing logs at you. 
The idea is simple, hit the logs back over to him using the pan and 
see if you can knock him out... bizarre, but fun!

Level three is completely different again. You are riding Johnny 
Jumper your trusty horse and are racing along the train tracks 
trying to catch up with the villains who have hijacked the train. 
Once you have caught it you must ride alongside the moving train 
shooting at the bad guys, while at the same time jumping over any 
obstacles that come your way.

Level four sees you back to the jumping and shooting of level one, 
only this time you have boarded the moving train and must jump from 
carriage to carriage killing the enemy and rescuing the hostages.

I expected that we had now seen all of the styles and that everything 
else would just be a variation on the first three levels, but how 
wrong could I be?

On progressing further into the game I had to avoid "twisters", 
squashing machines, crazy cactus, falling rocks, ghosts and a 
multitude of guys wanting to beat the sh*t out of me... Yea, 
believe it or not there is even a beat-em-up game hidden amongst 
the levels!

Not content with that, Infogrames have also put in a rollercoaster 
type level, where you ride on a mining wagon, ducking under posts, 
jumping gaps in the tracks and leaning from side to side on two 
wheels so as to avoid falling to your death where one of the rails 
has disappeared.

If you like "Track and Field" type games then there are 
two levels that see you bashing on your keys as fast as possible 
in order to beat your competitor in some lumberjack events.

Finally they have thrown in some "Time Crisis" style 
shoot-em-up levels just for good measure.

It should be pointed out that each of the game styles is nowhere 
near as good as those games to which I compared them against, 
however its the fact that the company has produced such a varied 
game that should be applauded. Its all to easy to produce a game 
with hundreds of similar levels, however to create something with 
this amount of completely different genres is such a mammoth task 
that few companies would have the balls to even attempt it.

Every platform game has something to collect and lucky Luke is no 
exception. Picking up the golden dollar signs gives you... wait 
for it.... Money! At the end of each section, you can trade your 
money in for either additional lives or a password that will let 
you restart the game from that point.

The game doesn't support the analog joypad, but this is no real 
loss on this type of game.

Level loading times were acceptable at approximately 10 seconds 
per level. 

Value for Money

Infogrames were very insistent in pointing out that 
this game is aimed at the younger gameplayer. Bearing this 
in mind, the 14 levels and three bonus levels this game offers 
should be enough to keep the kids interested for quite some 
time. Its a shame that the designers did not include a 
difficulty setting within this game, because as it stands an 
experienced gamers will complete this game within quite a short 
amount of time.