CLASSIC MOMENTS
Everyone’s A Wally PLATFORM: ZX SPECTRUM DEVELOPER: MIKRO GEN RELEASED: 1985
e love having printed instructions with our games, but we’re not often found actually reading them when we get a new game – more often than not we jump straight in and just spend a little time experimenting with the controls. That’s why modern games include boring tutorial bits, it’s our fault entirely. Of course, we did exactly that when we first got to grips with Everyone’s A Wally. We took control of our hero and jumped about, seeing if we could reach the top of the fountain. We did it only to see the ground open and Wally plummet into a stadium, with the most terrifying inhabitant imaginable, a shark that has somehow evolved the ability to live outside the water and run on its tail. Oh no! We tried to walk away but Wally wouldn’t move, until we remembered a crucial truth about 8-bit games – if the character you’re controlling is inside a stadium, you’ve got to waggle the joystick if you want to run faster. Cheers for that, Daley Thompson!
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BIO Having already hit big with the everyday hero Wally Week in Automania and Pyjamarama, Mikro-Gen decided that Everyone’s A Wally – or The Life Of Wally as it was known in development – would focus on a large supporting cast, introducing a multi-character gameplay system in the process. The press was thrilled with it and while some fans felt it lost something as compared to Pyjamarama, the reception was excellent. While Wally’s adventures would continue this was the last game in the series for the programmer Chris Hinsley, with Dave Perry handling future entries.
50 | RETRO GAMER