Is DARKMAN Worth Playing?

[@GigerPunk]

It's been a fair while since I've watched the film but isn't Durant the name of the bad guy, rather than Darkman himself?

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@GigerPunk oops, yes! But absolutely no-one but you will definitely pick up on that, and I'm sure I won't get 20 comments about it immediately, so we should be good!

[@SuperMookles]

​@@RoseTintedSpectrumhang on a moment, wasn't Durant the villain of the piece?

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@SuperMookles oops, yes! But absolutely no-one but you will definitely pick up on that, and I'm sure I won't get 20 comments about it immediately, so we should be good!

[@pedroamaralcouto]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum I'm pretty sure Durant is the name of the bad guy.

[@GangsterFrankensteinComputer]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum I'm pretty sure Durant is a bug-steel type Pokemon.

[@MonsterJail]

Darkman 3: Die Darkman Die was actually named in honour of this game's difficulty

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Darkman 3: Die Darkman D... Oh, wait, no, he's already dead.

[@GigerPunk]

No, that's German for "The, Darkman, the".

[@gabrieldomino]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum Not dead enough, apparently

[@YouSoSpice]

move over Godhand

[@SonicAlpha]

The best part of this, is listening to you becoming more and more unhinged as you play, thus becoming just like Darkman (who isn't called Durant). Perfection.

[@mercuryshadow5445]

Another great video lad, think it’s the 40th of yours I have watched in the last fortnight. I never had a spectrum but I remember them from being around 4-7 before my dad put his in the bin. Was more of a Master System kid (was quite partial to some Enduro Racer and Laser Ghost) and Game Gear (GG Shinobi FTW) with the eventual pleasure of Sega CD for Snatcher and some point and click game on PC to grow up with and actually enjoy. Your content is so nostalgic of early 90’s but not even just that it even unlocks a lot of memories too. Just keep doing what you do, after seeing what you said about MH in one of your previous videos I have to say you’ve done a lot for mine in such a short time.

[@Coolguy.399]

Still super happy to see this channel go strong!

[@scopeh2006]

Hmm let me guess why it went from 85% to 22%. Ocean paid the magazine to give a great review to get people to buy it. 2 years later when the agreement was up they gave an honest one. Just like Gamesmaster giving shite games 80+ percent constantly because they dont want to upset any publishers.

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

You are a super player, RoseTintedZpectrum. We always knew it, but now it's been confirmed by the ending to Darkman!

[@kano2684]

I remember this little gem, god I'm getting old

[@B_T_B]

God, I played that game back in the day. Yes my mother gave me a bollocking after I was dropping f bombs as a young child.. Kind of the like the time playing daley thompson decathlon with a Competition Pro Joystick stuck to a wooden chair in the middle of my room as I was furiously waggling it.. Yes from downstairs it sounded like I was knocking out a few lenghts of the track.

[@steve16384]

At least you can say you're now officially a Super Player.

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

Another triumph!

[@Eggnog3000]

Can you see if you can find the kids TV program with rod Hull and Emu, grotbags and a camp crocodile? 'There's somebody at the door' oh it's the police

[@letsdiscussitoversometea8479]

I think you'll find that those "ninja stars" are called _"shuriken"!_ Used to have them in my soup in pasta form (stelline) as a child. 😋 Ask me for the recipe and I'll share it gladly. As for the game, to its credit it looks *really* good and detailed. A shame they didn't use a bit more colour like they did with the rooftop stage - that definitely was properly designed.

[@dosnostalgic]

12:57 "Armed as he is with a machine gun" Sir, that's a rivet gun.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

YOU'RE a rivet gun

[@Orosian5]

no u

[@robertrobson8490]

I hope you make a living out of this channel because you certainly deserve to. Love your content.

[@robbrodie7581]

I never really played video games when I was younger but enjoy your video's

[@bloodrunsclear]

Darkman was actually Sam Raimi trying to make a 'The Shadow' movie...but he couldn't get the rights. You can really tell with his flowing coat and wide brim hat.

[@ctrlallterrors]

Actually it was Batman he wanted.

[@itchytastyurr]

TAKE THE EFFING ELEPHANT!

[@goport]

Gotye bit was inspired.

[@hamrammr1]

Darkman is a great film. The Bruce Campbell cameo is awesome, and Liam Neeson losing his shit is always entertaining.

[@jdgonzo1982]

Dear RoseTintedSpectrum...I crave to see you struggle through CJ The Elephant...please consider it for future content x thanks for entertaining me :)

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@jdgonzo1982 Take the fucking elephant!

[@TeZXSpectrum]

Even with cheats this game makes me wanna pull my face off. This was ace. " That'll be just fine"

[@ctmtmtl316]

Robocop was amazing. I had Predator but the cassette was knackered so only played first level. Never played Darkman love the films.

[@Quimbyrbg]

Fantastic as always. The pink elephant song was funky. You never do anything by halves

[@jamespoole76]

Wow just the one life. At least they gave you an energy bar. 😂 I love the dulcet tones of the Spectrum. 😅

[@GlennStubberfield]

Really??? At 8:07 I see Bub from Day of the Dead holding a Scottish Terrier... Funny how the minds eye plays those tricks...

[@ZacHawkins42]

That techno track during the rooftop level was awesome in all honesty. Did you make it?

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Just piecing stems together, nowt technical!

[@ZacHawkins42]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum I enjoyed it! 👍

[@MichellePamelaLyons]

8:04 I thought it was a bald man holding a small dog, which was tilting its head in that "What's going on? I don't understand these human things" way that dogs do.

[@holdingpattern245]

I actually see it

[@Dizzula]

Just checking in with the obligatory "Ya got the guy's name wrong" comment

[@stephanieextance1160]

Please do moonwalker on sega 🙏 pretty pretty please ❤ love your channel x

[@SwainyAtRetroAsylum]

Hated the Spectrum version. The Gameboy version however is basically an unofficial sequel to Target; Renegade.

[@hamrammr1]

I think the final boss is using a rivet gun, not a machine gun. Bit of pedantry there.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Riveting pedantry!

[@arostwocents]

Great video, never heard of Spectrum Darkman. Enjoyed it a lot! ❤ some nice colour use in some of the levels. 👎 Everything else 😂

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

I feel like the game looks okay in stills, but the colour clash in some levels just makes it completely impossible to see what is going on. At this point in the system's lifespan I get the sense that colour clash that bad is an indicator of the game being done on the cheap with barely any time spent on it, which is probably why the game as a whole is so unreasonably difficult to play. It's like they just about managed to get the thing to run and designed it to look good in screenshots so that people would be tricked into thinking there was a much better game on the tape. Honestly, that helicopter section probably looked incredible on the box next to pictures of the two sections that had more than a single colour on screen and the photo mini game.

[@projectfanboy]

Durant is the bad guy Darkman is Payton Westlake.

[@WurlyBurger]

Great film. Took me more than one watch to get it. Rami is a legend.

[@jimibaboza]

Methinks you missed your true calling of video DJ/remixer. :)

[@MysticalOne-yb1ny]

That was hilarious!

[@atflst6053]

I enjoyed this review a lot. Good stuff.

[@TheBeird]

Only Ocean game I remember playing from that era was The Untouchables on the Amiga. I remember only seeing the last level for that once, and I doubt I'd been playing on account of being four. Jurassic Park on the SNES tho? I shit em!

[@Eggnog3000]

Amazing, my week is complete.

[@bryanbridgwood6923]

Ah yes, Darkman. As I recall, he has the ability to doppelgang any person, but only for a bit.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Just 30 seconds or so, so he doesn't have to flying kick someone

[@bryanbridgwood6923]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum I saw the movie on a date, and I was very disappointed. No tops, no fingers, no nothing.

[@veejay_hypo]

Fun fact: Although a lot of people think Durant is the name of the bad guy, in the lost extended media it's revealed that Darkman himself is Durant, so well done for referencing that so expertly.

[@penguincustard1]

Man I loved that film when it came out. Don't think I ever played it in the speccy though, probably a good thing.

[@goport]

Re: The Dark Man is Shit song. Its brilliant. Its even convincingly tuned down 1/2 step like most rockers tend to do. And then it starts cranking out riffs that the DARKness would be proud of. All with convincing production values. In short - its brilliantly realised. And executed. This all makes me wonder if AI ... I am assuming its AI .. is the biggest fuck you to my 40 years of playing guitar in bands, sessions and the occasional songwriting workshops. Here's where you tell me "No Goport, its not AI! I did it all in my project studio with a little bit of help from the local CoE sunday school choir." Which of course would me I have to burn all my guitars (23 at last count) and unsubscribe!! Great YT vid! FFS!

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Haha, no, it's definitely AI, however I think AI is only ever really going to produce your standard. It's not something that can replace a live sound, or jamming, or experimentation or the LOVE of music. It's perfect for me, simply because I can throw in a daft set of lyrics and ask it to produce a spunky filler in a video but it's only ever learning from what came before and, for me, true music is about a specific vibe, a specific feel, and a specific heart. AI can only replace that in a listener who enjoys music at the base level of "drum goes bang I like the guitar woo"

[@tim_is_random]

@@RoseTintedSpectrumYou say that, but I’ve had “You can’t catch for shit” (from the GamesMaster video) going round and round my head for the past month or more

[@t7plus]

It's all well and good entertaining the hoi polloi with amusing TV commentary, but it's nice to see you go back to basics with some good old shitware. Cheers.

[@RetroBytesUK]

I'd almost completely forgotten about Darkman the film, fortunetly I completed avoided darkman the game.

[@billybollockhead5628]

I remember this reviewing well? I even asked for it for xmas (didnt get it)... Oh, maybe I should watch the whole video before commenting :D

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@billybollockhead5628 it got stonking reviews... Until it didn't

[@kickstart_1.3]

Do you have any plans to review Soloman's Key?

[@Metal_Maxine]

I thought that not having colour clash like on level 1 (argh! Darkman is magenta and red against a magenta and red background) level 3 would at least feel better on the eyes. It doesn't.

[@Metal_Maxine]

Also, my guess re: ratings - brown envelopes with money in them.

[@theblackwidowchronicles]

nope !!

[@mr.a8315]

Fab work, hilarious! 😂🐘

[@commodoretro429]

The graphics are really good but I'm not that keen on it. It's just gratuitous violence.

[@ZeroCrystal]

Good God, from the "Gotta rip a Grumpy" look on the thumbnail, to all the issues that this alleged game has, I could just sense that this game was crap from the word go.

[@EricLueck]

Hey RTS, what do you use to emulate ZX Spectrum? Been watching for 5 years, but my American ass can't figure out how to get one running.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I use Spectaculator, which isn't free - but Fuse is a good alternative option!

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

I'm pretty sure that the reason for the difference in review scores has something to do with Ocean Software buying a lot of ad space that month. By the time the second reviewer was given the game, I doubt that there were many new releases coming out on the Spectrum outside of a few bedroom projects, or reissues of older games at discount prices, and it likely wouldn't have affected revenues all that much for the magazine to give it a good kicking. What were Ocean going to do: stop sending them review copies of games that came out several years ago that were most likely already sitting in a drawer, collecting dust at the office? I wouldn't have been surprised if the last days of the magazine were made by a bunch of people who knew they were going to be lose their jobs and refused to quit until they were given a redundancy package. In that situation the publisher was probably doing everything possible not to actually fire any permanent staff and was holding out as long as possible in the hopes that they would decide to quit voluntarily, so the magazine would be off the hook for any contractually guaranteed pay offers.

[@fattomandeibu]

I read somewhere that the last few issues of Commodore Format was all one bloke using several names. I also remember CU Amiga having their review of Rise of the Robots out before everyone else and giving it an 82, whereas most of the other reviews were between 20 and 55.

[@gwishart]

By the time Your Sinclair reviewed the game a second time, it wasn't even a "bunch" of people working on the magazine . It was two: the editor, Jonathan Nash (who wrote the review), and the art editor; both of whom already knew that the magazine was closing down the following month.

[@thefishdog]

play the dolph lundgren punisher on the Amiga and feel the pain like the character

[@phil1s]

Avoid too many 'free punches'!

[@Nosaveddataretro]

We getting a through the dragons eye game review? 😂

[@xenomorphman3380]

This game looks about as much fun as when i had my vasectomy and the doctor didn't give me enough local anesthetic.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I can confirm, as someone that has gone through the same thing, you are correct.

[@OscarsBadFurDay]

Darkman did a dark shit and then made a game outta it for the ZX Spectrum.

[@davidmay268]

That last level with the helicopter is straight out of T2. I know, because it's the only game I had for 6 months on the c64 because I got the version without a tape recorder, and just had a cartridge until my birthday in June That was ocean too. You might be interested to know that most of Ocean became TT. Hence why Lego games are shit too. Film licence check Shit combat with one move worth using, check Crap platforming, check Unfair randomised projectiles, check Technology changes, design stays the same. Now the legacy has moved to 10:10 and we have shit film licence funko games. Same people, same shit design

[@ghostoflazlo]

Sad man moments indeed

[@ThisSourKraut]

Nothing says English Bloke more than mentioning ZX Spectrum. Apart from tea cakes, but that's another story...

[@StarvedForTime]

The reason? Bribes. It's bribes isn't it?

[@AgtX999]

mike reid & ray winstones love child

[@journeyman1218]

What was the dance track during the take the fucking elephant part?

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

That was one of my daft creations, just built using various stems

[@journeyman1218]

@RoseTintedSpectrum I was wondering why Shazam couldn't identify it! It's pretty banging tbh 😂

[@nimbler]

It's a shame really because the game has a lot; large sprites and explosions, plenty of animation and ideas, colour backgrounds, full-screen scrolling, masking and dissolves. Someone put a lot into this but probably didn't get time to balance it at the end.

[@greenhowie]

Those YTP-style rave remixes always brighten up my day. Game looks like utter shite.

[@VaterOrlaag]

Darkman is the 2nd best Liam Neeson movie. The best one being Krull, naturally. Dude's so alpha in that one he's got 7 or 8 wives. 7 OR 8 GODDAMN WIVES! (I think a Krull game exists too).

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Krull brothers 4 lyfe

[@blatherskite3009]

There was definitely an official "Krull" game for the Atari VCS (a.k.a. 2600) which was quite abstract, as you'd expect, but not entirely awful. 1983 film... Probably a bit early-days on the Speccy for anyone to bother with official movie-licenses.

[@FhargaZ]

And i thought the Atari ST version was pretty bad...not looking that bad now 😂

[@fattomandeibu]

By '91, Ocean's licenced games got really stupid. The C64 version of Terminator 2 starts with a really boring fighting game segment vs. the T-1000, with the only thing of note being that it has huge sprites and run at the full PAL 50fps, though this is all offset by just how bloody stiff and boring the gameplay is. Then you're put into the scene of being chased by the lorry when you're trying to escape on the bike and you're dead if you're hit three times, whether by the lorry or hit an obstacle. Then you gotta help Sarah escape the nuthouse, which is pretty standard platform brawler stuff, not too bad. Then it's another T-1000 fighting game segment and I lost the will to live. All this on one life, then whatever the heck comes after it, which I gave up after realising this probably wasn't going to be the last tedious fighting game segment.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I only ever played this a few times at a friend's house and remember just being mesmerised by the graphics - but also vividly remembering who could never get past even the second level, haha

[@fattomandeibu]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum Yep, that second level was cause of many a rage quit, not just me either, I witnessed it happen to at least 5 people. We managed it in the end, and Sarah level didn't pose much of an issue, but as soon as we saw the return of the fighting game section, knowing there was probably going to be another bike section, that was it over.

[@gwishart]

@@fattomandeibu Not sure if the level design was different on the C64; but level 2 on the Spectrum version had a major design flaw which made it ridiculously easy: just hold the joystick diagonally up-right, and you'll sail through the entire level. The placement of obstacles and power-ups means that you never run out of health, or slow down enough to get caught by T-1000's truck.

[@fattomandeibu]

@@gwishart I doubt that'd work, there's no power ups on the C64 version.

[@ItsCrapContent]

Brutal ….is the only way i can describe it …also your Sinclair reviews where never really trust worthy 😂

[@trailersic]

Multiple Save States, the amount of times I've watched a streamer using a single save slot only to ... well exactly what happened to you.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@trailersic I actually keep save states all the way through, but I'm also a stubborn dickhead so I refuse to use them

[@Ratralsis]

How do you complain about an ending like that? It said you were a super player! What more can you ask for?

[@hybridplc]

Is DARKMAN worth watching? DEFINATELY!

[@AcornElectron]

Absolutely appalling but that’s just standard for the time. Remember, it was a time of one man bedroom coding and upstart companies churning out shit. Yes we had some excellent games that still play well today but there was a LOT of shite.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I'd agree, but this was Ocean well past the bedroom coding time

[@AcornElectron]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum I’ll refer you to the second part of my comment about companies churning out shit 😂❤️

[@ZombiWorkshop]

So... what you're saying is... "DARKMAN IS SHIT!" :P

[@gk73man51]

Quite well coded but zero game design skill on show.

[@EvilStewy]

Why did you so this to yourself? Thank God for savestates.

[@jonathanclarke4529]

Why do you call cinemas “theatres” 😂

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@jonathanclarke4529 honestly, good question - I never say theatres, but when writing this, I initially wrote cinemas and it didn't flow right, so I changed it, hahaha.

[@jonathanclarke4529]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum I see you as a bastion of truth for the English spectrum age gamer and hope you can continue to use entirely British English terms from now on 😉

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@jonathanclarke4529 I will continue to be tits wicked from this point on

[@Lollero200q]

No

[@toastedfallenstar584]

You are going to hurt yourself playing this sort of nonsense......

[@WillowAlchemist]

can you play as the elephant 😯