Charlie J Cool

Charlie J. Cool is Platform game, developed by Nevada and published by NRC, which was released in Europe in 1996.

Game plots are usually terrible. This one’s brilliant. Walking down the street one day, Charles gets crushed by a falling grand piano, dies and goes into the Netherworld. Which is somewhere, but not really anywhere. So he has to trudge through 28 rather similar levels of platform merriment to get back from somewhere. Which isn’t really anywhere.

In the tradition of platform games, the idea is to dodge, jump, collect and kill across seven worlds (including the odd bonus room) of horizontally-scrolling action, picking up keys along the way to gain access to the next level. Despite the changes of scenery, the application remains the same. Oh, and there are coins to collect, though I’m not sure why. Interestingly, the number of goodies you collect or baddies you kill determines where you end up - altering the end sequence accordingly. Stunningly average stuff, indeed. An A500 version is also available.

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