Part Two: Cracking On
It’s been 35 years since 8-bit wonderkids The Oliver Twins, Andrew and Philip Oliver, first created
that marvellously cute ovoid hero Dizzy. With many of his adventures available to play for free on
Antstream Arcade, join us as we continue our run through all the Dizzy games on our platform with The Oliver Twins piping in with their thoughts on each one. This week we present the remaining six Dizzy games that are available to play, for free, on Antstream Arcade!
Dizzy Panic
Year: 1991
Antstream Arcade Top Scorer: TheShadow1985 – 108,450 points
Plot: In the Dizzy series’ first foray into pure puzzle gaming, Dizzy and his pals are helping the Grand Dizzy operate his haphazard toy-making machine. Controlling the conveyor at the bottom of the screen, Dizzy matches the correct shapes to the corresponding hole as the Yolkfolk chuck them down at an increasingly manic pace.
The Oliver Twins say: “Travelling to CES in January 1990, we spent the flight playing Tetris. We felt that we could and should produce a puzzle game starring Dizzy and Dizzy Panic was the result. Programmed by Paul Ranson, with graphics by his brother Peter, it’s as addictive as we’d hoped.”
Bubble Dizzy
Year: 1991
Antstream Arcade Top Scorer: ZOLUK – 9,999,900 points
Plot: While taking a pleasant boat trip with his girlfriend Daisy, Dizzy discovers they’ve carelessly
made their way onto the pirate ship of evil Captain Blackheart instead! Made to walk the plank and stranded on the sea bed, Dizzy’s only option is to jump on the many bubbles and hope he can ride them all the way to the surface.
The Oliver Twins say: “The concept for Bubble Dizzy was straight from the illustration of Treasure Island Dizzy that has Dizzy walking the plank. Narratively, that’s fantastic, but it’s not actually an event in the game, so we thought we’d rectify that by including this as a mini-game in Fantastic Dizzy. It’s a neat little game, and we decided that it was worth creating another arcade game for home computers from the concept, adding more features and levels.”
Spellbound Dizzy
Year: 1991
Antstream Arcade Top Scorer: n/a
Plot: While casually reciting one of Wizard Theo’s spells, Dizzy manages to spirit away Theo and all of his Yolkfolk chum to the deadly underworld. Brave Dizzy transports himself after them in another cartoon rescue mission.
The Oliver Twins say: “Having seen what a great job Big Red had done with Magicland Dizzy, we let them produce this game entirely on their own, only adding a few ideas and suggestions. It’s another solid Dizzy game, but their best was yet to come.”
Dizzy, Prince Of The Yolkfolk
Year: 1991
Antstream Arcade Top Scorer: Debuggin – 500,000 points
Plot: While searching for their fluffle, Pogie, Dizzy and Daisy stumble upon a strangely deserted
castle. Exploring the building, Daisy snares herself on a mystic spinning wheel, sending her into a
deep slumber. Before Dizzy can help his girlfriend, he’s captured by Rockwart The Troll. He must
escape the grimy dungeon and rescue Daisy – AGAIN!
The Oliver Twins say: “Having done a great job on Magicland and Spellbound Dizzy, Big Red were
keen to produce another Dizzy game. They pitched a great concept, and we gave them our full
approval. The idea of using the tale of the lion with a thorn in its foot was wonderful – we wish we’d thought of that! They nailed the essence of Dizzy, and we were very pleased with the result.”
Dizzy Down The Rapids
Year: 1991
Antstream Arcade Top Scorer: ZOLUK – 1740 points
Plot: As depicted on its cover, Dizzy Down The Rapids has our ovular legend balancing precariously on a barrel, dodging enemies and obstacles in a fast and furious arcade game.
The Oliver Twins say: “While working on Fantastic Dizzy on the NES, we created a few mini-games. We thought it would be fun if Dizzy navigated down a river, and immediately Toobin’ – a classic arcade game – came to mind. So we decided that Dizzy should jump on a barrel to ride down the river, chased by trolls. It makes a fun game, and we decided this would be a good budget game with additional features and levels.”
Crystal Kingdom Dizzy
Year: 1992
Antstream Arcade Top Scorer: Clans – 37,300 points
Plot: Crystal Kingdom Dizzy is the final game in Dizzy’s core series of 8-bit adventures, and this time it’s not the Yolkfolk he’s rescuing – it’s their mystical crystal treasures! Join Dizzy across four magical lands as he seeks to retrieve the treasure and prevent his world from falling under the shadow of darkness.
The Oliver Twins say: “There was a push to move to full-price games, so we produced a large map
and design and left [Big Red] to it. It took them about eight months to produce and was pretty good. This was to be the last Dizzy adventure until 2018 when a team in Eastern Europe remade this game, and it was so good that it motivated us to design a new Dizzy game, Wonderful Dizzy, the last Dizzy game ever. We felt we had to go out on a high!”
All seven of the original Dizzy series and the five spin-offs are available to play for free on AntstreamArcade. Want easy access to all of this famous egg’s adventures? Download Antstream Arcade today!