The Most Forgettable Dizzy? | Dizzy: Prince of the Yolk Folk (ZX Spectrum) Review

[@lister_of_smeg6545]

Whilst its not up to the standard of Fantasy World or Magicland, after the mind-numbing tedium of traversing that bloody pit in Spellbound over and over, this game felt like a breath of fresh air. Sometimes less is more.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I've not got round to Spellbound yet. Something tells me I'm going to be eating everyone's hats.

[@faddy91]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum you are in for a rough time. I speedrun all the main spectrum dizzy games and they are all in the 10-20 minute range. Except Spellbound which clock in at over 45 minutes. And it isn't just long, it is hard. With the worst design decisions in Dizzy history, fall damage and weighty boulders.

[@faddy91]

@Stefano Pavone Crystal kingdom is a completely different game fwiw. There are 4 levels instead of 1 big map. And Dizzy controls are changed up a bit.

[@richardcrook2112]

Is that the pit with wind blowing up and you have to carry boulders to weigh yourself down?

[@jboneds]

I always think of myself as a Dizzy fan until I realise quite how many of them I've never even heard of, let alone played...

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

FRAUD

[@arostwocents]

The new one is brilliant. I got pretty far too. All of it makes sense. The puzzles are reasonable. Great game for a dizzy title

[@itsmatt517]

I must have had plenty of patience when I was a kid, I didn't recall that it was this frustrating

[@thesentientcarrot9409]

same. strangely this is one of the most memorable for me!

[@gnu_andrew]

Me neither, but I think it's relative. Playing this after the earlier incarnations and alongside Spellbound (which was new in the same pack), you're used to all the oddities. It's actually a relief to have an energy bar (especially compared to the one life and that's it of Treasure Island) and, as mentioned in the video, no crazy oubliette hiding one of the missing collection items. I completed all of them back in the day and this, along with Crystal Kingdom, was one of the simple ones I did on my own without my dad's help. I think Big Red were getting lazy by this point. Everything went into Spellbound. Prince was at least a bit more involved than Wild West Seymour and Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, both of which I think I got for Christmas and finished on the day.

[@RichardDzien]

"Will morris dance for Mastertronic titles" a highly under appreciated sight gag.

[@AndyG85]

I always thought of this one as kind of a bonus to the “official” Dizzy games, but I really liked it. It’s the only one I was able to complete, so that helped. I didn’t think any puzzles were COMPLETELY nonsensical (and come on, the glass sword on the gravestone from TID - what the hell) and I appreciated the lack of collectible scenery and amazing illusions. I also quite like the maps which seem like they carry on just out of reach, as it adds to the mystery - but it’s a shame you can see it’s a lie in that area

[@RRRRRaa]

One of my favourites in the series and loved the theme. Enjoyed the video anyway!

[@theclovercross]

I'm amazed at your devotion! You and all the british too :) I grew up with a nes but I could see the commodores and amigas that came before it. Too bad the spectrum wasn't as much of a hit here in sweden. Though I did play a dizzy game on my family's 486 I have no memory what of the games it were.

[@faddy91]

I agree that this one is the most derivative of the Spectrum Dizzy games. And there isn't much going on. Which makes it surprising that this game was the one that was got the most love from The Oliver Twins. An almost identical remake released on the NES and a port to mobile phones. The only redeeming feature of this game is that it plays identically to Magicland but has a half baked world and odd puzzles. But at least compared to Spellbound people could be expected to finish this game.

[@Larry]

Were the console Dizzy games based on this game or something?

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I think they folded a lot of this content into it, yeah.

[@DemonTomatoDave]

Dizzy The Adventurer was literally this game but on the Game Gear, if that's the one you mean. I even saw it once, on the shelf at Children's World, and didn't get it because I didn't have a GG or any money. Ridiculous excuses.

[@PixelsLtd]

The Aladdin Deck Enhancer for NES launched with a pack-in called "Dizzy the Adventurer", which is essentially an enhanced version of Yolkfolk. Puzzles moved around a little bit and extra characters. When that system failed, the game was put on a Quattro compilation cart, as far as I can tell, exactly the same rom. This version is whats on the Evercade cart. It was later ported to the Game Gear's "Excellent Dizzy Collection", very slightly graphically nicer. That compilation was meant to come to Master System too, well but was never released. I have a boxed copy of the Game Gear release, but I often debate if it had a full commercial release, as mine is litearlly the only copy I've ever seen anywhere. I regularly check ebay for it, and have never even seen a loose cart. There has recently been an online leak of an unfinished prototype of a Megadrive version of the game, which I can only assume was going to be part of a compilation as well, because no-one would have paid full price for such a short game, especially after the huge and much more varied Fantastic Dizzy. There was also a IOS port with "modern" graphics that was kinda awful, if I'm honest. Amiga, ST and DOS got proper cardboard boxed copies of a 16-bit version of Yolkfolk, which is, in my opinion, by far the best version, it fixes a lot of the unfair rubbish from the Spectrum/C64/Amstrad versions, and has excellent graphics. I'm not keen on the extra stuff they added for the versions called "Dizzy the Adventurer", though that may be nostalgia... but either way the 16bit version looks and sounds nicer.

[@PhilipOliver]

@@PixelsLtd you have one of the rare Game Get Excellent Dizzys - well done. it was produced with a ridiculously small production run. That really annoyed us! As we were paid in Royalties only and there was a much bigger demand.

[@PixelsLtd]

@@PhilipOliver Wow, thank you for the response Philip! It never ceases to amaze me when I talk about Dizzy stuff in various places online (as I often do, as its one of my all time favourite series and characters and a big inspiration in my own games design) and you happen to see it and comment! Thank you for clearing up that it actually was released, but just in very small numbers - as I said, the copy I own is litearlly the only copy I've ever seen, and I regularly check ebay for Dizzy stuff. Its in a nice protective plastic case and sits on my shelf pride of place! I wish there had been a Master System version, the SMS and GG version of Fantastic Dizzy is my favourite as it contains all the mini games, and you can actually choose which item to drop from your inventory, rather than having to cycle them - the Megadrive version felt sadly like a downgrade to me when I eventually "upgraded" because these two things were missing. I own and read your Dizzy book when it first released, and I recall being sad and angry at how mistreated you guys were (and Dizzy as a character/franchise too) towards the end of that period at Codemasters. I know that from the perspective of my friend group at least, there was still a HUGE market for the console Dizzy games and we were all really excited to see bigger, more varied adventures on more powerful hardware, like Fantastic Dizzy. I think pretty much every person in my class at school bought a copy! I'm sure however many Excellent Dizzy Collection carts were made for SMS/GG and MD (I assume that was coming, because of the Adventurer port?) they would have all sold out.

[@Wordsmith-qu9yc]

I remember loving this game, and I can't help thinking it started out as the next official full-size Dizzy game but it got side-lined when they made Spellbound Dizzy (a game which really was a chore to get through). There seem to be a lot of items in this game that don't do anything, suggesting it was originally intended to be a lot bigger. Great video anyway.

[@misharatkevich9808]

I only knew about Fantasy, Magicland and Prince since they existed on DOS... due to small size Prince was the only one I actually properly finished. I got decently far on Magicland, but never far enough, and I only finished Fantasy with an infinite lives cheat since a few specific aspects of the game (like the dragon that needs the sleeping potion) are outright murderous despite the rest of the game being somewhat easier. Fun fact: on the DOS versions (and I presume the Amiga ones, since the DOS versions are clearly based off that) the torches don't hurt you and there are no random-ass bats, nerfing the bullshit parts significantly. They did, however, change the boat section by inserting a narrow ledge the boat stops at, so you have to get a rather tricky jump going on. I'll admit I had an absolute blast back then as a kid (with the torch nerf and better Amiga-style graphics, of course, although I don't think I ever had the music work), but nowadays all I remember truly vividly is the doppelganger Dizzy. The solution is a little silly (more could've been done with this concept), but the idea itself is rather awesome. Oh, and I remember not knowing for years how to get one cherry (not even a hidden one) that required a slightly unobvious jump trajectory. Hyperfocused kids are surprisingly patient people, I would've said "fuck it" and moved on if I got stuck the same way now.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

As a proud American, I can assure you that most of us couldn't afford a 2600 until long after the crash had already happened. Atari weren't running a charity! That's why they buried so many games - if we really wanted them, then we'd have to earn them! (Nintendo does the same thing now, except they simply delete their E-shops afterwards.) Anyways, what was the crash for rich people was known as the Golden Age of yard sales/bargain bins for the rest of us. And speaking as a kid who could only afford a $2.99 game, ET is perfectly decent if you read the manual. Or bother to experiment with all the strange symbols on the screen. There's only one button. It's not hard to figure out how to tap into their powers. Everyone's anger should have been saved for Raiders of the Lost Ark, instead. Or Fire World. Whichever. Anyways, quality work as always - your comedic timing and delivery on this one was absoutely brilliant!

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I'm just jealous really. I don't think I even saw a NES until I was about 13.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum Yeah, but imagine being an Atari fan who only knew about the ST from a brief "overseas report" telling you how helpful its MIDI port was to British musicians. And it's right next to an ad for Strange Dreams, which blows away anything on the NES. (If you never play it.) And when you still only own a 2600? My sympathies only go so far. At least you knew Dizzy was an egg with boxing gloves. We had a square for our mascot. And I never found a single dragon to slay in my medieval Adventure. Just lots of badly drawn ducks. = (

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 We need to start some sort of "Retro hands around the world", where we all stand glumly thinking about the crap we put up with.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum I thought that was the entire point of the retro community? There's only so many good games you can talk about, and they're exhaustively covered. Even "the hidden gems" have become "the ridiculously expensive collector's items that everyone would really rather you didn't remind them of."

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 That's why I mostly talk about games no-one has heard of, and will continue to not hear of. I like to throw a classic in every now and then, but nothing is more interesting to me than old crap.

[@PixelsAtDawn]

This was a weird time in the Dizzy world. Magazines were getting all hyped about the evolution of the Dizzy formula with Spellbound (Dizzy could eat things and had special animations and stuff! Woo!). And yet here was POTY, which was about as vanilla a Dizzy game as you could get, especially coming right after my favourite Dizzy game - Magicland. But I picked up the Excellent Adventures pack (even as a 10 year old, the missed opportunity for an egg pun annoyed me), and while Yolkfolk was just more of the same, I still enjoyed it. Because it was more Dizzy. And it wasn't Dizzy Down The Rapids. Cos fuck that game.

[@GouldFishOnGames]

This is one of my favourite Dizzy games, it was one of the first ones that I played on the Amiga and was easily the first that I finished. Not sure if some of the BS and moon logic moments were smoothed out a bit on that release, but I don't recall getting as stuck as some of the others in the series.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Certainly, by the time they got to Magicland, the moon logic was removed entirely. Nothing is as bad as the first Dizzy for that crap.

[@SmoMo_]

Actually, I just checked, and 30 years ago you would have loved this. In fact, you would have said “I really loved the bit where I had to collect the cherries. It was like 2 games in 1!”

[@MusicoftheSpheres]

I played this recently. Could not get it up for toffee.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Could you not pop the cherries?

[@MusicoftheSpheres]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum Cherries could not be popped, not for the want of trying. The red herrings were certainly part of the frustration. Having said this, feeling bloody-minded enough to give it another go - hard to keep a Hull boy down!

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

Hooray for Rosie, and boo for bullshit inventory shite and gotchas. The only Dizzy game I ever played was Dizzy 3.5, the Smell of Fear.

[@ironmanTetsuoTV]

Spot on about the great marketing, there's no other possible reason for why my childhood love was for an egg wearing boxing gloves, it really is a shit character design but I'll fight anyone else that dare says that.

[@DemonTomatoDave]

Well this is distressing. As someone who DID get the Excellent Adventures box (why not eggs-cellent?? come ON) after an agreement that I could have it if my teacher signed off on my having been good for X amount of days in a row, I flippin loved Yolkfolk, it's the first (only?) one I completed without consulting a solution, and it's the one I've just recorded myself recommending as a best entry point on a popular retro gaming podcast (yet to be released)... and yet, all the criticisms you make here, if I played it for the first time now, I'd agree with them and would probably grump off halfway through and go away thinking it was bad. I... I think I may have finally been shown definitive proof that we are old now and it has in fact changed us :(

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

You and quite a few others have come back with exactly the same thing here. It's probably quite telling that I love Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantasy World and Magicland... And that's when I didn't get any more. I completely agree though, Prince is a perfect entry point because it stops short of the incredibly long treks you have to make in the other games, and you're 100% right to think it'd be the best place to start for new folk. My complaints are really: I'm nearly 40, and I wanted this when I was 10, and now I'm sad.

[@DemonTomatoDave]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum Did you try Wonderful Dizzy? Maybe that'll be more like it, I mean I played a lot of it and didn't feel like I was banging my head against 80s standards... that said, I had to abuse save states and stopped playing when I'd failed to save at a good time and was now permanently on my last life. Too stressful! I'm so old!!

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@DemonTomatoDave I did! Managed to get a review of it out when it first released and loved it. It helped that it looked absolutely insane for a Spectrum game.

[@NoelHarrisonfan]

At last, a KZbinr has said it, there never was a ‘video games crash’ and Dizzy was king, never Mario!

[@FellowHuman137]

Lets not forget nobby the aardvark, mayhem from monsterland and that named character from creatures 1 and 2

[@Heyoka86]

The thing I loved most about Dizzy games was how it made me use my imagination. The real gameplay was taking place in my head, as I had to think of solutions to the puzzles and how to fit the objects with the situations. And the satisfaction of having a solution you thought of work in-game was unparalleled. No NES game had that for me.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Yeah, even the NES Dizzy games don't feel the same. I think all that black negative space in the micro Dizzy games just makes everything so... Mysterious.

[@TeZXSpectrum]

Spectrum public service, building bridges to our American cousins. 💥💥💥💥💥

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I'm nothing if not A SAINT.

[@Zirus_Blackheart]

Out of the few Dizzys I actually owned Prince of the Yolkfolk (Amiga) is the only one I ever managed to finish haha :-D

[@ThisIsPete]

I've been playing the NES version of this recently on the Evercade, and they nixed a lot of the annoying bits. No more getting thrown in the river by the ferryman! Although I must confess I did laugh when it happened to you. Because I'm a monster.

[@Yesterzine]

Is that the "Dizzy the Adventurer" remaster?

[@ThisIsPete]

@@Yesterzine It's the NES version that they released on Evercade, which is basically Prince of the Yolkfolk Plus.

[@PixelsLtd]

@@Yesterzine Yes, Dizzy the Adventurer is the Yolkfolk remaster on the Evercade, originally the pack-in on the Aladdin Deck Enhancer fro NES, later included in a Quattro title. It was also included in that Excellent Dizzy Collection Game Gear cart that seems to not exist other than on my shelf. 😋

[@Yesterzine]

@@PixelsLtd And as I recall the version on the excellent dizzy collection.

[@PixelsLtd]

​@@Yesterzine "It was also included in that Excellent Dizzy Collection Game Gear cart that seems to not exist other than on my shelf. " 😉 Perhaps only the first half of my comment showed up on your phone! 😅

[@Vakantscull]

"Tea: it's got leeeeeeeeeaves in it"

[@SonicAlpha]

Prince of the Yolkfolk was tiny, because Spellbound Dizzy was absolutely huge (I believe it was the biggest Dizzy game at the time). The 8-bit versions of both games were terrible though 😭

[@MephProduction]

Im a bit obsessed with Dizzy so i love them all, but this was one of the weaker ones. But i was a c64 user.. and thankfully we did get good versions of Bubble and Rapids, but an alternative version of Kwick Snacks the main games were pretty much speccy ports.

[@FireButtonGaming]

Something about this whole game just feels DLC extra episode in modern terms. I mean it being the extra bonus in a multipack, the factory made to spec feel and trying to get more play time from being needlessly cruel. Fair play to Death though, flinging the Egg straight into the drink for bothering him. That's on brand for Death.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Yeah, good summation really! Dizzy Loadable Content.

[@mamehaze]

I tend to see this as a good 'introductory' Dizzy game, although yeah, it's short, and a lot of the gotchas and useless items are clearly a way to try and shroud that. Coming from Treasure Island, or even the original Dizzy nothing here is too harsh though, and with the game being so short, even if you do fail it's not much to replay. It's Dizzy-lite, strictly by the numbers, although maybe it was a foreshadowing of the mess that was Crystal Kingdom which was basically 4 even smaller and more forgettable adventures glued together as 'levels', but in that case made worse by using a game engine that didn't even feel like Dizzy.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Yep, 100% correct on that I reckon. Seems this was a lot of people's "I actually completed this one!" Dizzy. I know for a fact if I'd played it at the time I would have loved it as much as the others. I'm just a grumpy old dick now.

[@primokarma9841]

My Dizzy game would've been the best one

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

To be fair, yes.

[@RobsonRoverRepair]

Poor Dizzy. He went through hell to get his hole and everytime she wants MONEY. Bro you deserve better mate.

[@SuperJim]

I stopped after Spellbound as a kid so never played this / bubble / rapids.. and I think my world was a better place for it.. until i did the same and played them later in life

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Bubble and Rapids are my least favourite spin offs by a long mile.

[@SuperJim]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum same. Purely because I have zero nostalgic attachment to them I think. But yeah pretty flimsy case of 'slap an egg on the cover'

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

@@SuperJim I have nostalgia for them AND I think they're garbage. I'm torn asunder.

[@Caspian237]

Aww, too harsh, lol. You're right, it is not one of the best Dizzy games but it is still a heck of a lot better than the majority of the pap we played on the ZX. I got the Excellent Adventures compilation as a Christmas present and did manage to complete this one without any help, unlike Spellbound Dizzy which I only completed years later on an emulator with a walkthrough. Am not really bothered about 'gotcha' traps as long as you can learn from them and can avoid them in future playthroughs. You don't want to pander to certain gamers who want to complete a game within half an hour of loading it up so they can tell mummy how clever they are.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Yeah, my biggest issue with this game is that it feels very... Flat. Each previous Dizzy game added something new to the mix, but this feels like the sort of thing they gave away with Crash. I overhyped myself, for sure. I wanted another big adventure and I got "just another one". Even "just another one", in terms of a Dizzy game, is pretty good. But it's definitely the least essential so far.

[@jeremygregorio7472]

Hey as an American I find that comment about the shotgun offensive. Many of us have AR-15s and even occasionally a Glock. But the Glocks just for special occasions

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Just you wait until I send my hooligans after you. Then you'll be sorry. Oi oi oi oi oi oi oi.

[@neozeed8139]

Hot, flat and leaves? We have coffee!

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I refuse to believe it.

[@RetroSegaDev]

I flogged a huge chunk of my Speccy games to buy Dizzy's excellent adventures. Yolkfolk was the first Dizzy game I completed on my own, I was chuffed but did feel the game was a bit short and easy. I wasn't a fan of Spellbound Dizzy it felt like a mess with the silly trampoline and weight related Tom Foolery!

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Yeah, I've not heard great things about Spellbound and I'll unfortunately get round to it at some point.

[@jeremygregorio7472]

Actually (please read the proceeding comment in a nasally nerd voice) the North American video game crash was caused by a massive recession. Retailers took a short-term dip in video game sales to think that the fad was over. Over here Atari actually kept selling consoles direct to consumers because that was the only way you could get them

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I know but it sounds boring without hyperbole. I like to imagine one giant Karen tanking the industry because little Jimmy didn't like one game.

[@darkfalzx]

This was indeed the most nothing of Dizzy games. Probably one of the smallest and easiest games in the series, where most puzzles were just reused from previous entries.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Demo Dizzy, for sure. I can understand it was a good way for folk to get into the series, but after 4 previous games... Yeah, it fell flat for me.

[@billybollockhead5628]

Im 90% sure prince of yolkfolk was on a cover tape...

[@billybollockhead5628]

yes - no i see you playing it - im 100% sure i played it on a cover tape.. or maybe i had this box set?

[@docthefaust4519]

Kwick Snax was da effing SHET!! Lay some respect on it's name!! Unless you already in another vid

[@VampireJack10]

I'm gonna say it : the DIZZY games were SHITE.

[@elmosexwhistle]

Lol Americans like guns.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

[@ukrpgfan4029]

Stone cold classic game.....Don't know what the hell your talking about?

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Agreed, this guy is an idiot.

[@WillowAlchemist]

I played dizzy on the c64 as a kid 😌 and now i can again since i bought a c64 from the charity shop a few years ago and my favourite dizzy magicland 🥚