Hi there!

Move over Penguin Kun Wars, here comes:

Grand Monster Slam (1989):

Programmer: Rolf Lakämper

Graphics: Hartwig Nieder-Gassel

Musician: Chris Hülsbeck

Ratings:

Zzap! Rating: 71%

LemonAmiga Rating: 7.39

Now, this one is special in many ways. First thing you'll notice is that I'm actually writing about a sports game! Yup, I really do like this one. I guess it's because it's not based on any real life sport, but a fantasy sport, so my mind is kinda tricked into thinking "video game" instead of "sport simulation"

Regarding Penguin Kun Wars, truth to be told, I never played it. I sure sure does look like an inspirational source for Grand Monster Slam.

Grand Monster Slam is one of two games from a programming team who were calling themselves "Golden Goblins". They're not exactly tagged with "cult" or "legendary", but still they left an impression. Comparable with "Exxos" on the ST/Amiga, if you want to...

I think they were all rogue programmers comming from another German developer, "Micro-Partner", where they created "Mission Elevator", "Werner" and others.

The other Golden Goblins game was "Circus Attractions". Think "Summer Games" in a circus, nothing special.

All this out of the way, lets talk about the Grand Monster Slam!

Compared with real sports, Tennis is probably clossest. You have a player on each side of the field and they're kicking little creatures called "beloms" over to the other side. The main goal is simple: Kick all Beloms to the other side. Now what's making it difficult, is that your opponent is kicking them back

The trick is hitting your opponent with the beloms. When hit, he falls down and it takes a little moment for him to get up again. Hit him 6 times in a row, and you're done. Sounding simple, but the computer AI gets pretty good the longer the tournament goes.

To win the tournament you play two rounds of elimination play-offs, each against 8 computer players, then a finale round against three champions. It's starting rather easy, but gets pretty tough after a while, so it'll take quite some time until you win for the first time.

The game has all sorts of surprises, funny little touches and is incredibly polished and playable. There's for example the two mini games "Revenge of the Beloms" and "Faulton Feeding", 8 + 8 + 3 individually designed enemies (take the time to read their "data sheets" they're pretty funny!!), superb graphics and animations and fitting sounds and music.

Fun in 2007:

You may have been wondering why I have posted an Amiga screenshot instead of a C64 one. I really tried getting into the C64 version since I'm a fan of the little machine, but the conversion just didn't feel right. Somehow the controls seemed to be a little unprecise and a little off. Switching back to the Amiga resolved this and all the fun returned

Greetings,

Manuel