Head Over Heels: Deluxe

I can't review this game without mentioning the original. When I first loaded Head over Heals (onto my ZX spectrum back in the mid 80's) I was hooked. It was basically the 'Apple' of computer games - meaning it was at first glance a rip off of Ultimate play the game's "Knight Lore", however in reality it took what Ultimate gave us and damn well perfected it. The game was basically a bunch of mini escape rooms testing your logical abilities to either overcome obstacles, get out of traps, or simply forcing you to rely on luck to get past randomly moving nasties like mechanical gorillas! The delicious graphics, smooth gameplay, great music and novel idea that the two characters can be combined giving the player both abilities is pure genius, and at the time all this was squeezed into only 48 kilobytes of code. This remake? It took me right back to those days in the 80's. The game plays almost exactly how it should - the only 2 differences is that there is a button to jump and pick up at the same time (a god-send!), the other is that you can no longer mash the swap button whilst jumping, causing Heels to jump higher than normal (it was a cheat back in the day). The developer has…

8.5 / 10 Completed this on Hard Mode on Classic Speed. Better than I expected. I previously played the Retrospec remake and its original ZX Spectrum version, and it’s good to see a remake that doesn’t just repeat the same level layout. There are a number of new areas to explore, many additional obstacles, new enemy designs, and a completely brand new level which is good. Found this a little bit tougher than the original because of the new obstacles, but the Fish save points and the Golden Chicken perks balance the challenge. And there are many 8 bit tracks from its soundtrack which I like, they do capture the rich nostalgic quality of the old 8 bit games of the time. My only beef with this remake is that the graphics are really a climbdown from the 2003 Retrospec version, but the game has enough content to satisfy as it is, and the background graphics still have a bit of life to them. There are other users online who want the game to have a Level Editor mode to muck around with, and possibly share via Steam Workshop. That would be nice if the devs can do that.

An excellent update of the classic game from the 1980's. Well worth getting even if you have not played this game before. It is challenging and addictive and this is an excellent update giving modern day PC owners the chance to experience this game. I highly recommend this game.

My favourite game as a kid in the 80's. Never finished it back then but will definitely do this time round. Someone please remake Hydrofool along with that great soundtrack!

This is a superb recreation and enhancement of an 8-bit classic. Thankyou for coding such a great version Michael Ware and providing brilliant pixel art graphics Simon Butler. Top notch work! This is my favourite Sinclair Spectrum game of all time, completed many times. It's a work of genius by Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond back in the day. And this version is a wonderful homage, adding some really enjoyable new touches and options to further enhance the playing experience. I spent a bit of time playing a demo version of this at Crash! Live 2023 on the Spectrum Next. It looked and felt fantastic to play back then, so it's great to see how the finished version is really nicely polished. Plus it's awesome that it's now on a PC platform for those of us who don't own a Spectrum Next. So far I've escaped Castle Blacktooth, linked up in the market, liberated the Safari planet and started explored the brand new Tech Town planet. It plays well and feels really nice. The classic speed mode is faithful to the original, but for the impatient you can play at higher speeds. If you loved this game originally, or if you are new to isometric puzzle games of this style, this game is at the pinna…

Amazing recreation of a spectacular original. All the new animated wall sprites, the vibrant colours and the lovely plinky plonky music harks back to that wondrous 8-to-16 bit era when games truly were pioneering. I liked the original game. I think I played it on a friend's Amstrad 6128 with crunchy green visuals on a proper monitor. That, and Batman occupied many a saturday afternoon. We didn't however, get very far with it I don't think. It was just too hard for us. Fast forward a few years and another friend had a C64 and an Amiga. We played it a bit on hig Midgy and once again I found it a little too tricky. I always wished there was a "Continue?" option, so I could just carry on... But the game is all about making it all the way through without losing all your lives, and this recreation sticks to that ethos very solidly. What the above paragraph means is that it's now 2026 and I still can't finish the game. I've played it a bit on the Spectrum Next, which looks AMAZING on a proper VGA monitor, but the Steam version is easier to get 10 minutes with since it's the same as my coding machine. The two feel very similar, although I'd say the PC version feels a smidge m…