Gory but uninspired run 'n' gun thrills
The Dangerous Dave series is a long-running franchise of clever and inventive platformers that originally sprang from the mind of Jon Romero, the legendary designer best known for his work on the likes of Doom and Quake. However, this instalment wasn't programmed by Romero but fortunately it largely retains the series' enjoyable mix of side-scrolling Mario-inspired thrills. It is however, extremely gory and violent for such a game, so be wary when firing this one up if that sort of thing bothers you. This time around, our eponymous hero is on the trail of the evil Dr Nemesis (who also turns up in the Catacomb series) who has kidnapped Dave's little brother Delbert (well, at least it makes a change from princesses). What follows is a colourful but rather graphic adventure, where Dave makes his way through a series of multi-directional scrolling levels, blasting wolves and other such supernatural-themed creatures, like zombies and bats. There's not much to the game beyond leaping around and unleashing hell with your trusty shotgun, with none of the puzzles as seen in Rick Dangerous or the like, so in many respects this is a pretty simplistic game. However, there is a certain degree of charm to its old-school gameplay and it is fun for a while in a mindless sort of way. The graphics are decent enough, with smooth scrolling and reasonable sprite design but are nothing to write home about, which can also be said of the sound. The humour adds in a little personality to Dangerous Dave but unless you are a die-hard series fan this stands as a less-than classic platformer that can easily be skipped.
