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[BMcC]

One of life's greatest mysteries.

(Manic Miner, Rick Dangerous)

[lexaloffle]

Manic. Those little green shrubs of death in level 1 let you know who's boss early on.

[Alex May]

Rick!

[Oddbob]

No competition. Not that I'm biased of course...oh no, not I.

Y'see, I love Manic Miner but detest Rick Dangerous with a passion. Why? Well, maybe some of it comes down to formative years spent in front of the glare of a TV learning to master Matthew Smiths finest... but its much, much more than that.

Manic Miner is about artistry, its about taking in whats around you and using it to your advantage. If it moves, it kills you. If it looks like its going to kill you - it kills you. Its all there and if you cock up - thats your own stupid fault. If you plummet off a platform to your death or miss your jump - thats your own stupid fault, you should have been more careful. Each screen brings something different, something new for you to wrap your head round, but crucially - its all there in front of you. Everything you need to negotiate the maze of platforms is there, on one static screen.

Sure, the route may not be immediately obvious, but once you learn the way the game works - it all falls into place and clearing the screen in the fastest possible time becomes easier and easier until you can almost get round with your eyes closed.

In stark contrast - Rick Dangerous. Its lumpen, unfair and horrid design that you'd have to be a masochist to appreciate. Walked over the wrong piece of platform that looked exactly the same as that other piece of platform? Dead. Dropped off a platform with blind faith into the room below? In all likelihood, if its the first time you've seen the room... Dead.

After all, you don't actually need to let the player know whats going to kill him or give him time to react to it, do you? Or at least, the designer of Rick Dangerous seems to think so. Most of the hazards in game are hidden, the first you'll know about them is to watch your little behatted fellow cark it by some spikes leaping up from the floor, an arrow to the head or some such. It might have made good entertainment in Raiders Of The Lost Ark watching Indie wangle his way through the traps - but as game design? Cock. Thats what it is.

Where's the chance to react before hand? Its not there. There's just the tedium of walk - die, make mental note not to do that again, rinse and repeat ad infinitum till the game ends or you've re-engineered your computer by harnessing the power of a lump mallet in its general direction.

Thats not a challenge. Thats not even unforgiving. Thats just utter pants. And if they'd just given you the slightest opportunity to actually react to the traps, there might have been a decent game in there. As it is, its the worst kind of memory test there is.

However, in a battle of the hats...Rick Dangerous would win hands down.

[Alex May]

I agree with oddbob, in that RD is style over shitty memory test game design, but I wasn't really there for MM and so I haven't played it a great deal and can't rightly vote for it just on principle. Sad but true

[DanDanger]

Oh come on, rick dangerous was terrible, its instant unannounced death syndrome was almost unbearable. At least with manic miner you could see what was about to kill you, and it was ALWAYS your fault in manic miner. I did play rick dangerous for a while but gave up because the frustration level was actually painful!

[DrDerekDoctors]

I know that Rick is a textbook example of bad game design in many ways, but I honestly prefer it because it has a lovely sense of exploration in it and of being in a kinda' real location (because, y'know, pyramids ARE full of traps and shit!) and those are two things which plug right into my goodness-socket. It also has timebombs and when they're done right they make me grin like an idiot. That said, Rick's timebombs ain't the greatest (Rick 2's were way better through being able to slide them and having a visual indicator of how long till they went "Ka-Blooey!") but its the thought that count.

[Anthony Flack]

Rick 2 was completable, because they let you go off and practice each level beforehand, which made it almost a functional game. Rick one, however... as you got further in, the amount of traveling required to discover the latest set of traps (by being unavoidably killed by them and quickly using up all your lives, naturally), just got longer, and longer, and more tedious and repetitive. It just doesn't work, so it is therefore harder. In the sense that nobody would want to put themselves through it. Did anyone actually complete Rick 1?

Manic Miner was tough but fair, and unlike JSW was a very reasonable challenge.

[BMcC]

Oh man, it's in a dead heat!

[addictive247]

Love both games but Manic Miner was tougher for me.

I've got both games on our sister site Retro 247 at http://www.retro247.co.uk/remakes.htm. Rick Dangerous is pure class 

[Prospero]

Manic Miner is so awfully abominable that I'd rather let a rabid snail slowly eat my eyes out than play it for any length of time. Sorry but it's true.

(Actually I'm not sorry but I may get less counter-flames if I at least make you think I am )

Rick Dangerous is admittedly not much better, but if it weren't for RD, the wonderful La-Mulana - which I'm currently playing through - might not exist. Therefore out of the two, it must triumph!

[shinygerbil]

Heh, registered just to pull good ol' Rick level again. Nuff said.

[BMcC]

Bwah ha ha, you fell right into my trap!

[Oddbob]

The polls broken! Rick Dangerous has equalised!

That can't be right, surely?

[Anthony Flack]

It makes no sense at all, Bob. I ask again - did anyone actually complete Rick 1? Did anyone persevere beyond the second level, even? It's not too bad at the start, but after you've been playing for 20 minutes and some spikes pop up out of nowhere and kill you instantly, did you really feel like going through it all again from the start?

[DrDerekDoctors]

I got to level 3 on several occasions.

[caffeinekid]

Rick is the most unforgiving - there is only one way the vote can go.

Manic Miner is difficult - but when you mess up, it's YOUR fault.

[DrDerekDoctors]

Manic Miner is difficult - but when you mess up, it's YOUR fault.

Yeah, for loading shit like Manic Miner.

[moi]

It makes no sense at all, Bob. I ask again - did anyone actually complete Rick 1? Did anyone persevere beyond the second level, even? It's not too bad at the start, but after you've been playing for 20 minutes and some spikes pop up out of nowhere and kill you instantly, did you really feel like going through it all again from the start?

You think noone would have ever finished it?
You think there is a limit to human abnegation? think again.
No matter how hard the game that you release, you'll always find someone to make it a personal challenge to finish it. Even if you don't actually make a way for the game to be finished, chances are, someone will eventually find a way to finish it.

You'll also find a handful of rick dangerous gameplay videos on Youtube. Apparently someone went through the pain of learning the emplacement of all the invisible ladders in this game 

[Arne]

I don't think I like any of those from a gameplay point of view... Nice settings though. Rick D.2 had some nice robot sprites on level 1. I can't say I got very far in any of them. I managed to get to screen 2 in Manic Miner once.

I kinda miss single-screen platform games with lots of unique contraptions, elevators, platforms, levers, ropes, trampolines, whatever. DK jr stuff. Maybe

(I saw it for the first time on youtube the other day, huuge game). There was another one called

. Bruce Lee had awesome fights and characters, but I'm not sure what to think of the platform action.