Baldies

Baldies by Creative Edge
Format: CD
Players: 1
Pro-pad compatability: Full
Overlay: Yes
Memory Track: Yes
YOR: 1995

Ever want to rule the world? With Baldies you have the resources, but do you have the strategy and skill? Build your own society complete with workers, builders, soldiers, and scientists, and use them to conquer enemy territory.

Whenit comes to killing your foe, creativity is highly encouraged. You can skunk 'em, drown 'em, blow 'em up, and electrocute 'em. The only limit is your imagination. Plan your attack well. The enemy is trying to do the same to you!

Welcome to the world of Baldies, where you try to take over the world. Your obstacle, the Hairies. To say it in a nutshell, Baldies is a strategy/comedy game. The only benefit of the Jag CD it seems to use is the increased space for more levels, and a little FMV. The gameplay is great though!

You start each level with so many Baldies, predetermined for what you'll need to start off. I'd suggest the the first kind of house you set to building are military forts. You have to wait for the upgrade from the basic house that can become either a worker, military or sciense house, which takes a little while, but if you don't have the military power to protect and attack, you end up dead.

There are 100 different levels(and also undiscovered bonus levels;). They are separated in to 5 clusters of 20. Each 20 has it's completely different looking houses(serve same purpose as on other levels) and different music(stays the same for the 20). I feel they could've done a lot more with the music, and the graphics(which aren't that great--a lot like Cannon Fodder), especially on the Jag CD, but the game is a blast to play.

There are lots of ways to exterminate the Hairies. Always remember, it's "Kill or be killed." While the soldiers don't offer a wide varitey of choices on the killing(punch, gun, and grenades :), they are essential for protect your houses and destroying the Hairie's houses. You can put soldiers into your houses, and when the computer puts a Hairy in your house, he'll be killed. Otherwise, he'll kill a builder inside, which adds up as the level progresses (on advanced levels). You can make new Baldies, but whn you first start out, it goes real slow. Sometimes, you get to the point where you keep producing Baldies in seconds, but that takes a while to reach.

The most creative thing about the game are the traps you can build. You can make all sorts of stuff, such as, pits, springs, electrodes, mines, poppy mines(fill 'em up with air until they explode, like on Dig Dug :), helicopters(require an airpad which takes a very long time to obtain), and more. You even upgrade the traps, so they're much more effective, which is really cool. I don't make traps to often though, I usually go for speedy attacks to finish the level, although my friends usually sit there for three to four hours on the same level, because it's so freakin' fun.

As stated previously, the graphics kind of suck. Nothing spectacular that you should expect from the Jag. I mean, 256 colors, small sprites, makes it look almost like Cannon Fodder. So don't think this is an eyecandy game. Music is OK, gets boring after a while. They could've put a lot more tracks on, that sound better as well. Control is pretty easy, although you'll find yourself always needing the overlay, but it doesn't get complicated. Fun factor is best thing about the game, highly addictive and replayable. I'm not even close to finishing the game, and I've had it for over a year now.

RATINGS:

Graphics- D+ - Nothing to show off the Jags capabilites, except for the little FMV intro.

Music/Sound- C- - Music gets repitive after so long, although it's not loopy music, just cheesy music. Sound is a little better.

Control- A - Pretty good, I don't think you'll have many problems with it. It'd be better with a mouse though :)

Fun Factor- A+ - The best thing of the game--it's just plain fun!

By Adam Pratt