[Playing…] Mortadelo and Filemón II Street Safari

In issue 32 of Bonus Stage Magazine (which you can find here) I made a special where I commented on all the Mortadelo and Filemón games to date. One of the curiosities of that special is that The first game starring these characters was not created in Spain, but in Germany under the name of Clever & Smart, because that's how those characters were known there. This game ended up arriving in Spain translated into Spanish under the name Mortadelo and Filemón, so it is possible that many thought that it was of national origin, something understandable considering that the characters and its author are Spanish and that at that time there were many microcomputer programmers (especially Spectrum) in Spain.

After that game, a (supposed) second part known as Mortadelo and Filemon II Street Safari, that It had nothing to do with the first one, logical thing since it was developed by a Spanish team (Animagic), with no relation to Magic Bytes, the developers of the previous game Mortadelo and Filemón (or, rather, of Clever & Smart). Despite how different they are and the fact that they do not share any relationship (except using Ibáñez's characters), it was decided to add the number two in the title, as if it were a sequel, I imagine for marketing reasons.

The story tells us that a GRANDMA Agent (Ultramarine War Agents Specialists in Aberrant Messes) has sneaked into the TIA offices to steal a valuable microfilm, but he was unlucky enough to encounter a chicken from Professor Bacterio's laboratory that, after throwing some eggs at it, swallowed the microfilm. Mortadelo and Filemón will try to recover the valuable object before their boss, Super, finds out everything that has happened.

Street Safari It is divided into two parts, in the first we will control Filemón and in the second we will control Mortadelo. To go from one to the other, you have to write the password that they give us at the end of the first part.

In the first part, Philemon will have toand go through different rooms looking for chickens to take them to Mortadelo, which is on the roof of the building. When we are next to a chicken, Filemón will automatically catch it. Although this seems easy, it is not, since the chickens move and fly (which will force us to jump on top of the furniture to catch them) and, while doing so, we will have to avoid enemies, such as eggs or the pig, and our only weapon is our wits and Filemón's kicks. As we get chickens, the difficulty increases significantly. Furthermore, the fact of having to constantly climb from the rooms to the roof will put us at risk more than necessary and can get boring.

In the Mortadelo part, the game changes drastically, since our character will not stop running to avoid the fury of the Super, who will constantly throw objects at him, which he will have to avoid while avoiding the dangers that are on the street, such as cars or walls. Mortadelo will need to use his disguises to survive (we change the costume by pressing left or right and activate it with the action button), since, for example, the frog jumps more than the rest, the ghost crosses walls and the snake goes on the ground and avoids many of the objects that the Super throws. This second part is fast and gives us little time to get used to it. Come on, we will die many times, partly because during the first games it is difficult to know what can kill us and what cannot (for example the ghost passes through walls, but crashes into cars...).

In Street Safari We will die many times. lThe difficulty is high and even unfair, and only the desire to beat our points records can make us continue playing. Although the characters can withstand several blows before dying (depending on what damages us), it is a game that requires patience and composure to advance. Once we have mastered the controls and memorized the game, we can complete it in less than half an hour.

The graphics section is, without a doubt, the best thing about the game. The characters are represented with great affection, They are practically identical to the comics (except for the inconvenience of color limitations), the animations are remarkable (we even see how Philemon's hair and the pigs' ears move) and the settings are also good and They represent to a certain extent the overloaded style that the vignettes of Ibanez. In addition, they hide some details that are appreciated, such as the doors having an animation of opening and closing if our character or an enemy passes by.

The variety of dangers to avoid (eggs, pigs, giant syringes, knives, anvils...), the details (the Super's insults with the typical speech bubbles full of exclamations and drawings), as well as the illustrations of the Super and Bacterio dropping comments every time we die, represent very well what they become. Mortadelo and Filemón. Furthermore, the illustration on the title screen is one of Ibáñez's most legendary.

As far as the sound is concerned, well, one of the two, it has decent music (something that is not common on Spectrum, where most games don't even have music), but it is constantly repeated.

Mortadelo and Filemón II Street Safari He accurately represents Ibáñez's characters.Graphically it is great, and the fact that we control the two characters in such different phases gives it an interesting touch. Obviously it has a high difficulty (something common in Spectrum) that can cause frustration quite quickly.

Los fans de Mortadelo and Filemón, así como los que adoren los retos, pueden disfrutar mucho de este juego.