Witchfinder's Gaming Vault: GUTZ (Commodore 64)

[@retrotap]

Looks great to me

[@avant1277]

Great review! I remember this on the Spectrum and the C64 version is a much better realisation of the idea. The C64 palette was born for this game ;) You definitely showed how as the game progresses it runs out of ideas and variation, which you would have wanted in a full price release back then. Special FX were an interesting team, lots of talent but their early games like Firefly and Gutz didn't quite meet expectations. They did do Midnight Resistance, Hudson Hawk and Cabal though, which were all pretty good.

[@bjornh1527]

Never heard of it before but GUTZ seems like an ambitious game! The concept is good, you are basically a bacteria…! Shutting down ALL vital organs is a bit overkill, most organisms would kick the bucket after destroying heart, brain OR lungs. Solid concept, I could see a spiritual successor where you need to weaken the organism first by destroying kidneys, destroying the spleen to get rid of antibodies and then choose a route trying to destroy one of the vital organs. Could have different endings depending on the organ…

[@witchfinder1976]

Haha, I like your ideas 😁Maybe somebody will remake it for a modern console one day!

[@zawtowers]

Always was in two minds about this game. The graphics are really nice, and cramming all four stages and 16 mazes in all into a single load, with each of the four stages having an individual graphic style was good. This did though compromise things: Fred Gray had limited space for the music and so both the title and in-game tunes were repetitive (it's under 2.5K for the routine and data) and the gameplay was a little limited - more tracking back and forward to find what you needed, which meant more use of the map (as long as you had time left.) It's a shame as the concept is fine but needed more variety in there to keep it interesting.

[@witchfinder1976]

Yeah, I agree, it's quite samey and a little frustrating gameplay-wise, but I do think the pros outweigh the cons.

[@merman1974]

Played this on the Commodore Format cover tape, the instructions were just about adequate. It's quite good, but ultimately gets repetitive because the four levels are essentially the same thing repeated. I do like the graphics though, and Fred Gray did some good music. I'm also a fan of that letter-transforming high-score entry - which was obviously developed from the one in Mikie.

[@rwxdesigns]

The letter transforming routine was also used in Arkanoid:Revenge of Doh if I recall.

[@witchfinder1976]

I wasn't aware of that routine in Mikie, as that's not a game I played on the C64 as I recall. I do agree the gameplay in Gutz does get repetitive, but I don't think it's as bad as the Zzap review made out.

[@inphanta]

I did have this but I think it was on a cover tape. Unfortunately l, as I didn’t RTFM I just ended up getting lost as I wandered around aimlessly in the samey looking corridors shooting the same 4 enemies over and over. As you can probably tell, this game didn’t really do it for me all that much. The graphics are good though. I always thought that Karen Davies was a fantastic graphics artist who doesn’t really get the credit she deserves.

[@witchfinder1976]

Well if you didn't read the manual then I can imagine it would soon lose its appeal 😆 but the graphics are great and the gameplay is just about good enough if you know what you're doing.

[@rwxdesigns]

That scrolling background on the title screen on your capture doesn't come across well at all. It's not smooth in all directions as it should be. Never really played the game though as I didn't understand it much at the time. Just had the Commodore Format covertape version.

[@witchfinder1976]

Yeah, that background hurts my eyes! Maybe it worked better on a CRT back in the day.

[@MrLtia1234]

Definitely a case of style of over substance. Great concept, great poster, super-meh game that only vaguely lends itself to the actual concept.

[@witchfinder1976]

I wouldn't go so far as super-meh, but it does get a bit dull the more you play it I suppose.

[@ArttuTheCat]

Happy new retrospective year 🎉🎊🎈 2025 from Vantaa, Finland 🇫🇮 😺👍🕹️. COMMODORE 64 FOREVER 😺👍🕹️! Press play on tape LOAD LOAD"*",8,1 LOAD"$",8 AMIGA FOREVER 😺👍🕹️! Insert disk 💾 2

[@witchfinder1976]

Happy new year to you!