[AMSTRAD CPC] 🕹️ Head Over Heels - Longplay & Review (+ Other Versions Comparison!)

#amstrad #amstradcpc #headoverheels #amstradcpc464
Longplay and review for "Head Over Heels" on the Amstrad CPC!
Head Over Heels is one of the most highest rated and beloved Amstrad CPC games of all time - universally loved across all systems it appeared on not just the CPC - for most people it's the pinnacle of the isometric adventuring genre and probably, arguably, the end of it too! It's also one of the most requested games for me to longplay on the channel! So at last, here it is! And I'm very proud to bring it to you! A true classic from the golden era of 8-bit gaming... Enjoy!
(c) Ocean Software 1987
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_ov...)
www.cpc-power.com/index.php?p...
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Background music featured - "NAEON" by "24:7" - 247retro.bandcamp.com/
Timings -
00:00 Intro
00:43 Game Introduction
04:46 Longplay
43:21 Other Versions Comparison (During Longplay)
52:07 Longplay
1:39:18 Finishing The Game

[@Markus-zw8tr]

thanks for this great video! Head over heels was also one of my favorite games in late 80ties. I've never completed this game , but I tried it a lot of times. I like this special 3d game style by jumping or moving elements from left to right . Not sure if this game was also a hit in late 80ties, but it was at least a very special game. 🙂

[@Xyphoe]

Thank you! And yes it was a hit! I don't know sales figures to know if it was a BIG hit, I don't think it would have hit the sales figures heights of anything near like a licenced game of Operation Wolf, Batman, etc but I believe it did quite well for an original game.

[@Frederic_Bessy]

Thanks for this nice video ! My favorite isometric game remains Ocean's Batman. May be because I discovered it first and that it wasn't too complicated for the kid I was. May be thanks to the idle motion :) Head over Heels is nice too anyway.

[@lion5352-z1s]

Mega. Brilliant.. I played this game for months when I was a kid .. Best game ever .merry Christmas

[@Xyphoe]

Awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying this so much - makes doing videos like this worthwhile! Merry Xmas mate!

[@christians.7599]

Thanks a lot for this great video! Takes me back in time 😊

[@Xyphoe]

Excellent! My pleasure - I'm glad this is bringing a nice nostalgia rush back! That's what it's all about :)

[@poppichicken]

My favourite CPC game of all time. Funny story - when this came out, I had just bought Slap Fight from a local computer store. I finished Slap Fight within a couple of days and took it back to the shop. I think I said something along the lines of it being too easy and that there must be something wrong with the cassette! Anyway, they let me return Slap Fight and choose another game. And I chose Head Over Heels. Best CPC decision ever! Played the heck out of it, and beat it after around 2 months, without the use of a map. Played it through a few times since over the years. Ritman/Drummond were an incredible duo - the Perry/Bruty of isometric games.

[@Xyphoe]

HA! That is funny, did you see the bit in the video where I talked about the budget re-review in Amstrad Action where Head Over Heels and Slap Fight Hit Squad re-releases were reviewed next to each other? Yikes! Anyway, glad you got it exchanged!! But yea, just wish the Ritman/Drummond duo had made more games too!!

[@poppichicken]

@@Xyphoe Yep, that was indeed the part of the video that triggered the memory of the exchange!

[@heyhonpuds]

I love this game. Cheers Xyphoe. Merry Christmas🎄

[@Xyphoe]

I now love it too very much (after being a bit averse to 'isometric adventure games') - cheers Heyhon! Merry Xmas to you too!

[@tacticalpirate372]

Great Longplay Xyphoe. All the best to you and your family.

[@Xyphoe]

Thanks mate! Great stream earlier, merry Xmas dude! Arrrrr!

[@magicknight8412]

Great video ! This is the best isometric game for me the pinnacle really, knight lore a close second place. It oozes charm with the graphics and sounds. A true masterpiece on the Amstrad. 9.5/10 for me too

[@Xyphoe]

Glad you agree with my score mate! I might have to dig into Knight Lore at some point.

[@maudn183]

Great game, one of my favourites. I think with HoH it gets a really good balance between guiding you through the game but giving you freedom to explore. It's difficult to get too lost. Interesting point about some isometric games trying to do too much. I really wanted to like Nexor but it just seemed too vast and difficult to get anywhere in it.

[@Misel982001]

Excellent game 👏👏👏

[@fandabidozi3191]

My favourite game of all time! I’m not all the way through watching yet, I’ll add comments as I go. It’s fun seeing someone else play and using different tactics than I use. I still have my original Speccy copy of the game but I play it on my hacked 3DS these days. I’ll be interested to see if you cover the ‘easy’ ending, which can lead players astray thinking they’ve completed the game when they actually haven’t (seen this missed in other play through videos].

[@Xyphoe]

Yes! One of the things I should have made more of a mention of is the freedom the game allowed you to complete the game or partially complete the game! And how you could tackle it. That was really cool. Only want to steal 2 of the crowns? Or just want to escape? You can do! etc

[@fandabidozi3191]

@@Xyphoe Merry Christmas! Yup, it’d be easy to get every crown and still complete the shorter end game and the full ending is very hard to figure out for me anyway. 😅

[@Xyphoe]

@@fandabidozi3191 Oh! I hope errr I got the full ending here?

[@fandabidozi3191]

@@Xyphoe I gotta escape the relys before I can watch more. 😅

[@henrimedot]

Hi Xyphoe! Sorry for watching only the beginning of the video but I've sworn to myself that I would finish this game one day, and I don't want to be spoiled 😉. Have a very nice Christmas Eve!

[@Xyphoe]

Cheers Henri! And no worries I totally understand - good luck on your mission and Merry Xmas!

[@mamehaze]

One of them, I think Jon, although could be wrong, ended up working on the Radica Plug and Play Cricket game (we don't emulate the motion controls of it yet unfortunately) There used to be a portfolio from somebody else at HiScore including design documents for another Radica game (Skannerz TV) and a bit of commentary on their time at the company and who they'd worked with etc.

[@Xyphoe]

MameHaze with the random facts and knowledge! Nice!! Quite an obscure one there, pretty sure that would have been Jon Ritman being the coder of the two there.

[@zeprowl]

There aren't many CPC games I still play, Head over Heels I redo sometimes. I don't know if you talk about it in your review, but it is a really well paced difficulty and eventually even myself and my older brother (we were around the 8-11 mark) could finish it. The progression was just so fun. The first time we got both characters to the marketplace was a cool achievement. The first time we got to the moonbase. Then managing to escape. Then we'd start going for all the worlds - my bro once got three in a single playthrough and it was so cool to watch. Then I figured the fourth one, and we EVENTUALLY got to the throne room. It was just so cool to be able to get these little milestones each playthrough. These days though I'd never have the patience!

[@Xyphoe]

"it is a really well paced difficulty" - absolutely and I think it is something I neglected to mention in my commentary probably but IS in my notes and underlined to mention!! But I got carried away with talking about what was happening in the game with the puzzles etc then other versions of the game etc and I guess the moment had passed... but yes so true. The game does fairly well ease you in IF you have the time and patience for it and not just give up too easily.

[@RetroUnlim]

My favourite Tears for Fears song ❤

[@henrimedot]

Mine too!

[@Xyphoe]

I'm probably more partial to "Shout" personally, but GG!

[@Bippystopper]

Great memories and a solid 9 out of 10 for me.

[@Xyphoe]

Thanks mate! And another high score I see! Totally deserved!

[@martinvegas1327]

Merry Christmas🎅

[@Xyphoe]

Same to you and your family Martin! Merry Xmas!

[@rickyzambrossiakachristian5727]

Best whishes for Christmas from Germany....

[@Xyphoe]

Merry Xmas too Ricky! Hope you have a lovely time mate!

[@MrHarbonaut]

At the end it looks like 'The People Salute Your Nerdism'

[@Xyphoe]

...And they would be correct! 🤓

[@darrenconnor945]

Wow, I'm watching this tonight

[@Xyphoe]

Enjoy Darren! Good luck with the shop and Merry Xmas to you and your family mate!

[@darrenconnor945]

@@Xyphoe thanks, and thanks for your streams. really helps.

[@zeprowl]

I do remember a *very* nasty softlock! **spoiler alert** After you get the 5th crown, you're invulnerable. My bro and I decided to try to explore all of the rooms, and there is one at the end (the escape path in blackrock) that has a floor full of spikes, and a bunch of disintegrating blocks. If you mess up a jump you'll hit the floor and not die (being invulnerable), and there is no way out!

[@Xyphoe]

Oh right... the final room with the teleporter to freedom?

[@zeprowl]

​@@Xyphoe nah, if you go the other way at 1:32:23 that also leads to the exit (it rejoins at 1:42:44). There's a room full of disintegrating blocks, doors too high to jump into, and spikes on the floor. The idea being that if you mess up the jump you die, but of course if you are invulnerable due to having the crown you're just stuck on the floor with no way out! The way you went at 1:31:20 is supposed to be secret (because there's no indication that it even exists), I remember finding it randomly! There are a few clues that tell you it exists, like the conveyer belt in bookworld at 1:01:40 which leads to a room to the south east with no indication onscreen. You just get sent back to some random room.

[@AnthonyFlack]

Hoho, the CPC version is clearly better. Look at those lovely graphics. All versions are excellent, but I'd say this is a rare case where the CPC got the best version of a great game. Better even than the 16 bit versions thanks to the sound, I agree. There are very few multi-platform games I'd honestly say were best on the CPC, but this is one. It was only recently I learned that Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond actually made a third 8 bit isometric game together; a game called Monster Max for the Gameboy.

[@Xyphoe]

It's all subjective... but pretty much tentatively agreed there for fear of angering people and being accused of being an Amstrad fanboy as usual! 😄 But yea!

[@AnthonyFlack]

​@@Xyphoe - Bernie Drummond must have appreciated the extra colour anyway, redrawing all the graphics so carefully especially for the CPC, bless him. And what beautiful work it is! Some of the era's finest. The art in Monster Max is nice enough, but suffers a lot from the lower resolution of the Game Boy. Speccy fans can always console themselves with H.A.T.E. or The Great Escape or any of the many other classic games that Amstrad users got to experience in doggedly inferior slooow moootiooon... and it's a small concession considering the Spectrum version of HoH is still easily 99% as good anyway! The original 48k Spectrum is an engineering marvel IMO, the Raspberry Pi of its day - tiny, cheap and unreasonably capable.

[@zeprowl]

I don't know if it counts as a softlock, but in rooms if the second 'tile' in front of the door is a spike or something (like the room in 20:50 because it happened to me!), if you carelessly leave one of the characters in front of the door, then enter it with the other character, you'll push the character into the spikes when you enter, which reloads the room, where you push the character again until you lose all his lives! There's also a few cases with Heels (but you have to be kinda deliberate) where if you fall into a room with a monster that has a fixed pattern to chase you, it runs under you and waits for you to land on it! Then when you respawn, some thing! It was much worse in some PC remake and ruined the game for me. Most of the rooms that won't happen though as the monster is too far away, or the have a random pattern and won't hit you.

[@Xyphoe]

Ha really? That's unfortunate!! I guess that's easily missed during development and testing - I didn't even think and consider that!! Although your 2nd thing and paragraph I didn't quite understand, but that's OK :) I'm kinda done with the game now anyway!

[@zeprowl]

@@Xyphoe the room at 9:10 for example - if after you get to the room above, if you try falling back down, that monster will always just track to where you are going to land and wait for you. Heels can't move so he's doomed! You die, then you respawn, and the monster moves and waits for you again :)

[@Xyphoe]

@@zeprowl Oh THAT guy!! Yes I understand now!! Of course, Heels doesn't have the 'wings' that Head has so he can't float and adjust where he lands so yup .... doomed in a loop till he has lost all his lives! That is a bit of a play test fail really but umm... what can you do!!

[@spacefractal]

we at Rusty Pixels is doing a Spectrum Next port of the original for the issue 2 kickstart backers. Im have just checked bugs mentied here. None of them happens in this port, while im did do seen that bug seen in room 9:10 too with the monster. That bug was present in the original and got uncatch, but we choosen to fix it here (the monster dont move, until you lands on the floor). Nice to find a bug, but its was present in the original. lol, hihi. The game is still not finished. There was also few instant death rooms when enter with example with heads. we trying to avoid that, so you dont got killed accidently like that.

[@Don_Facoquero]

Better than Batman in almost everything.... but I still like Batman more... it's Batman!