Phantomas Tales

STORY / GAMEPLAY
In Phantomas Tales #1: Marsport (the sequel to the Infinity), the great thief Phantomas intercepts a message from Mars saying that there is plenty of gold on the planet. The hero has no time to lose so he acts fast and flies his spaceship towards the red planet. As soon as he lands, Phantomas has to travel his way through different screens, jump onto a variety of platforms, confront or avoid alien enemies and, finally collect 20 containers filled with one of the most precious metal in the galaxy. So, he has only one task to complete: to return back to Earth wealthier than ever! The game is based on the classic jump-onto-platforms formula most 8bit games used in the mid 80s. The first game had inaccurate jumping mechanisms (which was its major problem) but now the controls in Marsport seem much more responsive. All you have to do is to jump from point A to point B and get on the next screen until you find the container. Yes, it's as simple as it sounds.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The game runs both on the 48k and the 128k models, with the 128k version having a few added details. The graphics, although colorful for a Spectrum game, look blocky. The sprites move quite fast and the screens change in flip-screen mode (like on the CPC version).
The game's sound features a nice intro theme (128k version only) as well as a few sound effects along with a cute tune during gameplay. Comparably, the 48k version has sound effects only. Note that the pictures and sounds featured in this very review, are from the 128k version.