Crystal Kingdom Dizzy

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Crystal Kingdom Dizzy
Developer(s) Codemasters
Publisher(s) Codemasters
Designer(s) Creators: The Oliver twins
Platform(s) Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, CD32
Release date December 1992
Genre(s) Adventure game
Mode(s) Single player

Crystal Kingdom Dizzy is an adventure video game featuring the character Dizzy released in December 1992 by Codemasters. The series was originally developed by the Oliver twins who had little involvement with this title.

The game is considered the eighth and last title to date in the core Dizzy series (excluding action or puzzle oriented spin-offs such as Kwik Snax), although the ultimately unfinished Wonderland Dizzy very nearly saw a Master System/Game Gear release and rumours have surfaced from time to time that another game is in the works. The Dizzy series had by this stage grown to being one of Codemasters' most profitable franchises. Codemasters recognised that Christmas was the best time to release a new episode of the series, so began work with a five-man team in January 1992 and worked solidly for nine months making this the most tested title in the Dizzy series.

This was also the first full price Dizzy game released for the home computer formats - previous games had been available at budget prices.

In all previous Dizzy games, the Spectrum version was the base version of the game, with graphics ported to the Amstrad CPC & Commodore 64. In this final game the Amstrad & Commodore both had versions programmed specifically for them, taking advantage of their enhanced graphical abilities. The Spectrum version featured a version of the "jumping" Dizzy sprite that set it apart from all previous Dizzy games: the character now span three times with one jump rather than twice, making him appear faster, and rather than tumbling after an awkward landing, Dizzy now landed on his feet. He could even be directionally-controlled during a fall, rather than left to tumble mid-air to an inevitable position. These alterations to the main character's behaviour made Crystal Kingdom Dizzy differ greatly from its predecessors, and generally upset fans who also noticed that Codemaster had failed to animate a "forward facing" jump animation on the 8-bit versions of the game. When jumping without the left or right button depressed, Dizzy would nevertheless default to facing right when jumping straight up. This, along with changes to the appearance of the Dizzy world (which were not considered an improvement), and the game's division into four independent "levels" (making it feel less "epic" than Dizzy's previous adventures), met with general disapproval amongst Dizzy collectors who were seeking a suitable justification for the extreme hike in price (around £12 compared to approximately £2 for all previous Dizzy games). Typically, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy is regarded the worst of the Dizzy adventure games, particularly amongst the original 8-bit Spectrum and Commodore players.

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Dizzy video games
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