Count Duckula 2 (ZX Spectrum/Amstrad CPC)

"Count Duckula 2 is a very late game for 8-bit micros, coming out in 1992 at a time when they were pretty much all winding down. And while the final commercial days of a machine can produce the odd late gem, they can also produce games where it's so clear how little energy or thoughts were being given to the machine at that point, and this is most certainly one of those. The Amstrad version takes the cake to the point where it's often been called the worst game in the machine's history. It's a platformer that, as you can see for yourself, moves slower than a turn-based strategy game. Worst of all, it pretty much can't be finished - the Count cannot jump any further than the top of the screen, which, in the end, will put you in positions where you literally cannot reach the Mega Man-esque disappearing platforms that the game is littered with anymore. When games like this start to come out for your micro, yep, I'm afraid that's when you know it's time to move on."

- Kim Justice

Count Duckula 2 Featuring Tremendous Terence is a video game released for various home computers in 1992, published by Alternative Software. It is based off the British cartoon series Count Duckula by Cosgrove Hall, and is the sequel to Count Duckula in No Sax Please - We're Egyptian. This article will focus on the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC conversions.

Plot
Count Duckula finds himself stranded on Planet Cute, a place covered with animated toys and the Count doesn't like cute things, and so he must find a way to get back home.

Both versions

 * 1) Horrendous graphics that look like they were taken from a game released a decade earlier. This is excusable for the ZX Spectrum, but not the Amstrad CPC!
 * 2) Limited animation. Count Duckula, for example, doesn't have a jumping animation.
 * 3) The platforms don't move properly and seem to appear and disappear at random, kinda like in Mega Man.
 * 4) Awful sound effects on the CPC and 128k Spectrum versions.
 * 5) * The 48k Spectrum version has no sound.

Amstrad CPC only

 * 1) The game is a lazy port of the ZX Spectrum version.
 * 2) Awful framerate that's even worse than the Spectrum version.
 * 3) There are numerous graphical glitches, like with Count Duckula falling into a pit.
 * 4) Incredibly unresponsive controls.
 * 5) This version stops Count Duckula from jumping to the top of the screen, as he'll bump his head and fall straight down.
 * 6) * Making matters worse, the levels weren't adapted with this limitation, meaning that some screens are impossible to complete without cheating, like the second screen, for example.
 * 7) To skip really hard screens, you have to use Tremendous Terrence, and the player is limited to only a few attempts.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Good rendition of the show's theme song.
 * 2) The ZX Spectrum version is somewhat better than the Amstrad CPC version, as it runs faster and doesn't limit Count Duckula from jumping beyond the top of the screen.

Reception
The Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum versions of Count Duckula 2 were critically panned by various magazines. Amstrad Action gave the CPC version a score of 3%, and the ZX Spectrum version was voted by readers of Your Sinclair as the worst Spectrum game of all time.

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