Trolls

Trolls is a cute platformer developed by Flair Software and released by Capstone Software in 1992 for the Amiga, Amiga CD32, Commodore 64 and MS-DOS.

The game was based on the famous toy creatures that were around the time, the cute blue-haired trolls are present in the game for the player to use. The game features these trolls as they run around trying to save as many of the baby trolls as they can.

The game is super colorful - like, insanely colorful! If you haven't seen this game before, it will definitely come off as a surprise! The seven worlds the game is based upon looks like a rainbow, the background, the interface, and even the enemies are so shockingly vivid in colors that it is will often enough to distract you. Maybe the concept is not very innovative: it's a classic platformer where you have to jump on certain enemies to eliminate them till you get a Yo-Yo. The Yo-Yo is pretty neat; it allows you to kill enemies, smash aside blocks to open up new paths, and with the right amount of practice, you can even use it to swing across gaps. If it wasn't for the Yo-Yo, I would feel as if it was a more colorful clone of the Super Mario series.

There are a lot of levels; each world offers several levels that are pretty massive in size to be completed in any order you'd like. The goal of each level is generically the same, collect a minimum amount of baby trolls to pass the level. However, there was an excellent addition: the letter system, similar to the one you can find in several arcades such as Bubble Bobble or The New Zealand Story. If you manage to find the letters B, O, N, U, S or B, O, G, U, S, you are eligible to go for an extra level that may give you an extra life on the former or a time limit to escape on the latter.

It was pretty disappointing to find out that it had no in-game tunes, but the sound effects are pretty cool, especially the sound the elephant makes when he takes a jump.

Overall, Trolls is a charming platformer. I felt like it would have been a worthy title if it had a bit more creativity in its level design and innovation. However, it still is an excellent game to play, especially if you are a fan of the little trolls.