The Newzealand Story

The Newzealand Story

Game No.	416
Voting	7.14 points, 14 votes
Developer	Richard Palmer, Steve Wahid
Publisher	Ocean, The Hit Squad, Taito
Musician	Jonathan Dunn
HVSC-File	/MUSICIANS/D/Dunn_Jonathan/New_Zealand_Story.sid
Release	1989
Platform	C64, Amiga, NES, Arcade, Wii, PC Engine, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, SEGA Mega Drive, SEGA Master System, Amstrad, Atari ST, Sharp X68000, Fujitsu FM Towns
Genre	Shoot'em Up, Jump & Run, Platformer (Scrolling Screen)
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media	,
Language
Information	aka New Zealand Story

Description[edit | edit source]

A picture of the game.

New Zealand is a nice place to live. In the big zoo of Auckland the animals are very comfortable, especially the many small kiwis that live here. One of the small birds that enjoy the peace there is Tiki. But the peace is gone, when animal catchers catch a psychotic walrus and house the boy of all places on this zoo. This fellow, named Willy Walrus, has an enormous appetite for fresh kiwis. Therefore, his followers instantly go on the chase for kiwis. Tiki and his relatives are caught to fill up the pantry and hidden at 20 dangerous spots on the island.
Only one of them escapes - Tiki, whose role you take over.

Aim of the game

As the life as a kiwi is boring on one's own, the lovely Tiki tries to free his friends.

Design[edit | edit source]

Another screenshot of this game.

The game belongs primarily to the jump & run genre. However, you can also dive and with some tools even fly. The Newzealand Story is divided into 5 main levels with each 4 sublevels. At the end of each level you need to free a kiwi from his cage and at the end of each main level there is an end boss. Graphics, music and animation are reproduced from the arcade original as far as possible, of course deductions need to be accepted here. The levels are big and partially you first laboriusly need to search for the right path. In the beginner levels, however, you get directive hints in the shape of arrows. Your weaponry consists of bow and arrows, but you can take also the weapons from the defeated enemies. Items for bonus points and a short time of invulnerability drop as well. The collectable letters to form the word EXTENDED are known from the game Bubble Bobble. Some enemies fly with balloons, UFOs or rubber ducks, the aircraft can be looted and sometimes they even have a board cannon. If Tiki needs to dive, a bar showing the oxygen left is displayed.

Screenshots

Whale conserved in ice...

Is this supposed to be an octopus?

The evil, ravenous walrus...

You also need to travel under water...

A "town level"...

Hints[edit | edit source]

Controls

Done! All kiwis are rescued...

jump or let the aircraft rise
walk or fly to the right
walk or fly to the left
from the ground: get out of the aircraft
fire weapon

Solution[edit | edit source]

Map

A map of level 1-1 to 1-4

A map made of spectrum screenshots for the complete game can be viewed at Speccy Maps.
Further maps from the magazines Commodore Format and Sinclair User, can be found at C64Games.de - Game No. 120

Cheats[edit | edit source]

If you lust for unlimited lives in this game, you need to press the keys T , R , Y and C , H , E , A , (T), I , N , G at the same time and wait until the screen border turns grey.
You also get unlimited lives with: POKE 3215,173

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.14 points at 14 votes (rank 405). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	9	10th December 2013 - 9 out of 10 points - 19.946 downs
Lemon64	8	10th December 2013 - 7,9 out of 10 points - 108 votes
Ready64	7	10th December 2013 - 7.33 out of 10 points - 15 votes
C64.COM	8	13th July 2014 - 8 out of 10 points - 6897 downs
The Legacy	8	10th December 2013 - "very good" - 13 votes
Kultboy	7	10th December 2013 - 7,17 out of 10 points - 72 votes
ACE	9	Issue October 1989 - 875 points - p.80
Commodore Force	9	Issue May 1993 - 89% - p.19 Issue August 1993 - 89% - p.17 Issue November 1993 - 93% - p.14
Commodore Format	9	Issue October 1991 - 90% - p.40
Commodore User	9	Issue September 1989 - 90% - p.56
Games Machine	8	Issue October 1991 - 82% - p.93
Your Commodore	8	November 1989 - 80% - p.17
Zzap!	9	Issue September 1989 - 93% - p.9 Issue August 1991 - 90% - p.81
64'er	3	Issue January 1990 - 3 out of 10 points
ASM	6	Issue October 1989 - 7 out of 12 points

Reviews[edit | edit source]

64'er January 1990 (Graphics: 3/10 Sound: 4/10 Vote: 3/10): "The Newzealand Story is suited for children up to then years, professionals will not take much pleasure in it. The aim of the game is to rescue as a small bird your friends from the hands of Wally Walrus and not get hit by his followers. The sound is boring and the graphics are far below average (especially for black and white screens). The motivation drops with every try." (German original by Anja Böhl)

ASM October 1989 (Graphics: 6/12 Sound: 9/12 Vote: 7/12): "Since the days of those memorable Super Mario Bros, there were and are again and again attempts to create new versions of this jumping and platform game. With success, it seems because by now there is a independent type of the so-called jump & run games, in which you need to jump, run and fly. Also TAITO would not miss the chance to deliver their own contribution to this genre but went their totally own path. So the plot of the game was put to the real existing New Zealand instead of mystical worlds, with a kiwi (they mean the bird and not the fruit!) as main actor. One needs to compliment OCEAN in this context, as they have converted well all features from the arcade machine. The sprites look funny and are properly animated, the single rounds are trickily and cleverly laid out and offer enough meanders and traps. Creative is also the way the enemies appear: Suddenly a door appears on the screen and spits out some of the heavy guys. The Newzealand Story is a very hectically jumping game and weighted on action. The single rounds are not really a walk in the park and require exact and skillful steering and a good shooting technique. The game nevertheless keeps his originality and shows some new ideas, that are mostly in the details. On the C64 the game seems a bit strange: The graphics are rather rough and do not really knock your socks off, the sound good to very good. In return, the difficulty grade is approx. twice as high as on the 16bit machines. This does not really encourage the fun in the game, because also on the Amiga and ST it gets hairy enough." (German original by Michael Suck)

Shmendric: "The background story and the main actors are very appropriate for children, the difficulty grade is not. The graphics seem adequate for a C64, the sound unfortunately bugs you after the first round in the replay mode. Otherwise, I only know the arcade machine that came actually much more easily for me."

Werner: "One of the better jump & runs for the C64. It has convinced me concerning the gameplay. If they had made own tunes for each of the five main levels, the game would have been a hit. As it is, there are still 8,5 points to give."