CJ's Elephant Antics

Crash

Overall 81%

EXCELLENT CITY Hello there, punters. Buying games is a tricky business, isn't it? As soon as one game reaches the shops there's something else on the way that looks even better. Decisions, decisions. But now, help is at hand - simply jump on the CRASH groovy train and take a ride to Excellent City where all the best games of the last few months reside. AND, THE BEST OF THE BUDGET CJ'S ELEPHANT ANTICS Code Masters £2.99 Platform action over a huge scrolling map, gameplay akin to New Zealand Story for one or two players, controlling athletic elephants! A great arcade romp packed with colourful graphics and addictive gameplay. Elephant Antics presents a huge challenge, too.

Crash

Overall 81%

Mark Caswell 81%

EXCELLENT CITY How many times have you seen a review in CRASH and thought 'Wow, that's a skill game, I'll go out and buy it', only to find it's not on the shelves yet. Or, if you've got some dosh, just can't decide which game to buy? Help is at hand, shopper! You've just bought a first class ticket and arrived at Excellent City, where the best games of the last few months live. Here's MARK CASWELL, who pipes 'Prepare to be dazzled (dudes)!' AND THE BEST OF THE BUDGET SLIGHTLY MAGIC Code Masters £2.99 Platform action over a huge scrolling map, gameplay akin to New Zealand Story for one or two players, controlling athletic elephants! A great arcade romp packed with colourful graphics and addictive gameplay. Elephant Antics presents a huge challenge, too.

Your Sinclair

Overall 85%

Rich Pelley 85%

BARGAIN BASEMENT RICH PELLEY goes dizzy over the latest batch of Codies games and JON PILLAR has quite a bit of trouble getting a word in edgeways. CJ'S ELEPHANT ANTICS CodeMasters £2.99 Reviewer: Rich Pelley Not fancying the prospect of spending the rest of his life in an zoo, CJ The Elephant has bailed out of the aeroplane which was taking him to England, using a nearby umbrella as a parachute. Worse still, he's landed in France, with miles (or at least levels) to go in order to get back to his loving family in deepest Africa. A slightly unfeasible plot, yes (elephants opening umbrellas?), but still a pretty decent multiway scrolling platformy game - a bit like a scrolling Rick Dangerous dare I say (not that that's too much of a bad thing of course). Firstly, as in Ricky D, the majority of the baddies walk along short platforms in set patterns. and so have to be shot with a peanut (lethal apparently) or bombed with a bomb (if you've collected some). None of this is too tricky, although it does take some time to work where to stand so it's the baddy that's killed, and not you. Also rather Rick Dangerously there are spikes and stuff everywhere (usually directly below you when you leap from a platform and impale yourself on one) so the trick in order to progress is to sort of memorise the layout of each level. At this point in the review, I think it might be appropriate to mention the graphics, the sound, and how addictive and playable CJ's Elephant Antics is (if at all). Well, the graphics are quite colourful and well drawn (though you do merge in with the background), but the scrolling is extremely jerky. Tsk. And the sound is okayish too. As for addictiveness, well, it comes out trumps (or should that be trunks?), easy to progress (although some parts are seemingly impossible to pass without losing a life). There's a number (I'm not quite sure how many) of different levels, each one set in a different country with varied backgrounds, baddies and end-of-level nasties which adds variety and stems the flow of boredom (although the initial screens admittedly do get repetitive after a while). One extra bonus is the simultaneous 2-player option where the players take a CJ each and work together, which I imagine would up the fun factor considerably (even if it is rather pointless as far as the gameplay goes). A severe lack of friends however means that I can't supply you with any conclusive evidence on that one. (It's a sad story. Ed) Okay, so he's hardly going to become as famous as Nellie or Undercover, but if we forgive it its jerky scrolling and severe lack of originality, I'd say that CJ The Elephant deserves to become a bit of a star. Antics is simple, cute, clean and cliched fun, and certainly worth its bob or two.

Here we see CJ and his pal having a few of his antics.

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Sinclair User

Graphics 85%

Sound 80%

Playability 88%

Lastability 86%

Overall 85%

Garth Sumpter 85%

A two-player mode also allows for double trouble as you try to work together to get through the screens and makes CJ's Elephant Antics an excellent original budget game. Ladieees and Gentlemen. May I present for your edification, Codemaster's latest, and possibly greatest release, involving the antics of CJ the elephant. What a big build up, and was it worth it you may ask? Well, the short answer is ye. The slightly longer answer is yes. The poor little guy was caught in Africa and put into a plane to be shipped to England to be a central exhibit at some place or another. Luckily enough, the plane hit some turbulance over Paris and CJ grabbed a brolly and made a desperate bid for freedom. Once landed in Paris however, CJ soon realises that he's not cut out to be a vogue-esque Parisian and decides to hack it back to Africa, thus avoiding all that greasy food and having to learn a new language. So there's the plot. Our little hero must make his way through each country on the route back to his hometown. He must jump, shoot and bomb his way past various nasty lowlife as he trucks along the horizontally scrolling landscape.

And if you look out of the starboard porthole, you'll notice the snail of doom looking dangerous.

CJ's no Dumbo! When he falls from his perch he uses his brolly to break his fall.

He floats like an elephant and jumps like Red Rum.

Crash

Overall 81%

Nick Roberts 81%

Code Masters £2.99 Poor CJ, a liccle elephant, has been captured and is being flown to a zoo many miles away from his native homeland. CJ didn't want any of this and jumped from the plane, grabbing an umbrella to help him reach the ground safely (fat lot of use that would be for a two-ton elephant!). You now have to guide CJ back to his jungle home. On his adventures, CJ travels through four levels of arcade mayhem, visiting Paris, Iceland, Egypt and the jungle before he can hear those native drums again. Of course, it's not just going to be a matter of jumping on the tube and getting off at Jungle Station - CJ has to battle his way through hordes of nasties and traverse the many devious platform puzzles before he can put his feet up (if that's what elephants do). All is not lost, as the little fellow is armed for trunked) with monkey nuts, which easily pop off any predator. All the backgrounds and sprites in CJs Elephant Antics are excellently drawn and coloured. The animation of CJ and the other characters is also well done and gameplay is addictive right from the start. A jolly tune brings the game to life at the beginning and goes on, and on, and on... it soon becomes irritating! CJ's Elephant Antics is a great arcade romp packed with great graphics and addictive gameplay. And for all you fans of realism, you can make a trunk to wear while playing the game out of an old toilet roll tube and some double-sided stick tape (thank you, Nick - Ed).

That cloud is a real pain, firing deadly lightning bolts at little CJ.