Sir Fred

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Sir Fred was a noble medieval Knight until an evil dwarf called Ultimor put a spell and transformed him into a tiny gnome. Fred wants to spot Ultimor and gain back his human nature! He also must save his beloved Princess (how original!) He fights through hostile environments like forests, swarmed by deadly dwarfs, spiders, bats, demons and zombies, with his sword and his throwing knives as his only weapons. Sir Fred can move from left-to-right and from right-to-left, while he can also move on the foreground and the background of the screen as well. In order to progress further, Fred must discover and gather the appropriate key, which is usually guarded by armed dwarfs. Once he gets the key, he can go through the exit of each level! The technique of moving the game's character on the foreground and the background is a unique feature of its time (as far as I remember, only Activision's Predator uses a similar feature). But to be honest, this uniqueness makes the game a bit more tricky. Overall, Sir Fred is among the most impressive action adventures for the 16bit home computers and also one of the toughest to play.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Amiga version offers great visuals (though they are mostly dark), original characters and smooth sprite animation. The sprites move a bit smoother (as expected) on the Amiga version compared to its rival, the ST. The game starts with a very nice introductory medieval-style tune, along with a brief and funny animated scene where Sir Fred turns…tiny! The Amiga version offers a variety of in-game digitized sound effects (sword clangs, enemy cries and more) along with a great in-game music (which is missing on the ST version).