Count Duckula 2

Count Duckula 2 is a computer game for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC released in 1992 by Alternative Software.

Count Duckula 2
Publisher(s)Alternative Software
SeriesCount Duckula
Platform(s)ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
Release1992
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single player

It was the follow-up to the 1989 release Count Duckula in No Sax Please—We're Egyptian. Both are tie-in licenses of the Cosgrove Hall Count Duckula cartoon series.

Gameplay

Count Duckula 2 is a platform game in which the player advances Duckula from screen to screen shooting soft toys with a ketchup gun.

Reception

Critically, the game consistently achieved some of the lowest review scores of the 8-bit era and is considered one of the worst games published for these platforms. Sinclair User reviewed the game, awarding it 64%, concluding: "If you like silent, slow, basic, dated, unresponsive, annoying games, get it!"[1] The Your Sinclair review was more scathing, awarding 9%: "The whole thing seems to play quite happily by itself, with the player being a sort of novelty bonus."[2] The Amstrad CPC version fared no better, with Amstrad Action awarding the game a mere 3%. In the final issue of Your Sinclair, Count Duckula 2 was voted the "Worst Game Of All Time by the magazine's readers.[3]

The Amstrad CPC version of Count Duckula 2 is included in Stuart Ashen's 2015 book Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of, in which he states that "Count Duckula 2 is one of the very worst examples of a lazy conversion. And as the game is distressingly poor in the first place, Alternative Software took something dreadful and made it into something frankly unholy."[4] Ashen criticises Count Duckula 2's graphics, calling them "absolutely dreadful" and expresses that many of the sprites are difficult to parse due to being reduced to two colors without being redrawn.[4]

gollark: It's a zyu, so people will probably look at it and think either "My god. I need to stop these deceptive practices and become an honest dragon breeder" or "I'll just find someone else to con".
gollark: https://dragcave.net/lineage/xxF20
gollark: I'll rename the Explanatory Suffix x Arbitrary Prefix pair or something.
gollark: Hmm... I could probably get a few and raise them.
gollark: Hopefully they have short lineages?

References
  1. Sinclair User issue 128 at World Of Spectrum
  2. Your Sinclair issue 84 at World of Spectrum
  3. Nash, Dennis, ed. (September 1993). "Let the People Decide! The Results". Your Sinclair. Vol. 1 no. 93. Future Publishing. pp. 11–12 – via Internet Archive.
  4. Ashen, Stuart (2015). Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of (1st ed.). London, England: Unbound. pp. 46–53. ISBN 978-1-78352-256-9.
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