DANAN the jungle fighter

After stocking up on the old jungle juice, Julian Boardman grew some stubble and played Desperate Dan-an

On a world not too dissimilar to our own, a plane flies high above the steaming jungle known conveniently as the Amazon. The passengers wonder why there are two planets with the same tropical region and why the programmers could not be bothered to think up something new for a name when their musings are cut short by a timely engine failure. Timely because I was rapidly running out of ideas for the first paragraph.

All perished in the crash or shortly afterwards in the intensely hostile environment of the jungle. All except a young baby - well, you don't see many old ones, do you? Anyway, this baby was taken in by a kindly man called Jamba who brought him up as his own.

Some 18 years later rumours began to circulate in the nearby town that a white-skinned boy had been seen living in the jungle. No-one had met him but it was said that he could run, climb and swim like a native person that, er, runs, climbs and swims a lot.

One day though, young Danan returned from hunting in the forest to find that Jamba had been cruelly hacked and slashed by some heinous thingy. Conveniently, Jamba managed to utter his carefully prepared "dying" speech to Danan before before he did, in fact, die. Danan was told to go to the mountains in the north-east and find the prophet Niai, who would know that he was coming - well, he was a prophet after all.

He finds out he has to defeat the embodiment of all evil, Gilbas but he must first find the three items he needs to do it. An orb, a knife and an amulet are the three bits and, apparently, this big guy is scared stiff of these three when they are together. Let me see if you can guess what kind of game this is. Is it

a) A beat-em-up;

b) Full of big hairy things;

c) Crap;

d) All of the above?

I must admit it does look very good and could warrant uneducated purchase on that merit alone. On the whole, though, it has all been seen before, perhaps not in such a good-looking package, but it has certainly been a lot more playable and addictive.

DANAN'S DOOBRIES

Danan can find many chests along the way which may contain any one of several different items.

• The Small Star helps to raise Danan's experience level. Each one is worth 15 points.

• The Large Star gives you an extra 25 points on the health level maximum.

• Beef is easy to find and gives Danan 10 strength points.

• Chicken Is harder to find but gives Danan 25 strength points.

• The Clock symbol adds 30 units to the timer. Should it be above 70, it will be set to its maximum of 100.

GRAPHICS 86%

✔ High level of detail and colour.

✔ Big, hard, mother-loving sprites.

SOUND 75%

✘ One repetitive monotonous tune.

✔ Inspiring sound effects.

PLAYABILITY 63%

✘ Repetitive gameplay.

✔ Basic beat-'em-up instincts save it.

MASTER SYSTEM

SEGA 66%

£29.99 • OUT NOW

Rating

66

Reviewer

Raze magazine

Region

UK

Scans

Raze-Magazine-Issue07?gallerypage=39

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