 Welcome back to Classic Replay. In this episode we continue Attack of the Clones for the Amstrad CPC and the game in question is Killer Guerrilla. Donkey Kong is not only the game that launched Shigeru Miyamoto's career but also the Mario and Donkey Kong characters, the Nintendo Corporation and the platform genre as a whole. After the highs of Donkey Kong came the relative lows of the clones. Climate was one such offering and my god the sheer lack of effort neglect almost is evident for all to see. I just hope and pray Miyamoto didn't. As things turn out though Killer Guerrilla is quite a close copy of the original with excellent sound and graphics. Well for the time it features four screens and the main difficulty will be found on a third when precise timing is needed to jump on and off of the lifts. Now as you can see in the top right hand corner that's the arcade original and Killer Guerrilla does bear some resemblance and it's a clone that doesn't stray too far from the original with colorful graphics and good use of the computer's sound. So four screens of action are present in this rather ordinary version but at the time it was probably the best that could be found on the Amstrad CPC. But that later changed in 1987 when Ocean Software won the arcade rights for Donkey Kong on the Amstrad CPC along with the other 8-bit versions and the results I have to say are something along the lines of arcade perfect. Now in Killer Guerrilla you're not quite controlling Mario but you are controlling a dare devil figure who has to scale ramps and scaffolding to rescue the girl from Kong while avoiding barrels thrown at him. Now there might have been more clones on the Amstrad CPC but Donkey Kong it's safe to say with its climbing and jumping strategies has inspired dozens of imitators and variations that are less destructive in their ethos than the ones deriving from space invaders and defender. But it's Killer Guerrilla that we're playing today it's a personal favorite of mine from back in the day. My heart severely goes out to anybody that was stuck playing climate and for a while despite being a clone this was the definitive way of playing Donkey Kong on the Amstrad CPC. I'll recall and remember the family would gather around the Amstrad CPC and everyone would take their shot at trying to bring down Kong and the scaffolding. Also Killer Guerrilla came out on the BBC Micro and it got rave reviews it was well thought of and the Amstrad CPC is almost a carbon copy. Now would I play this over the arcade original and the later version from Ocean? Well hell no but in all seriousness I still get a warm fuzzy feeling around playing this game but that's more to do with at the time not knowing any better. Looking at it today in 2021 it's far from sophisticated but we do have to remember this first came out on the BBC in 1983 and then I think a year later was ported over to the Amstrad CPC. Now I did manage to find an early review in Amstrad Action issue one and they seemed to like it and went on to say Killer Guerrilla has four screens in which your girlfriend has been kidnapped by a nasty ape and you have to climb to the top of the screen to rescue her. In the good news section they cite that both games have slick graphics testing platform action and in the bad news they say no prizes for originality but as a package they say it represents great value for money. Now I will play this again because I want to bring down the scaffolding and the beast himself. Now I don't remember paying any more than $1.99 for this game but when you look back at the Amstrad Action early review it came on a Killer Guerrilla Gauntlet release from MicroPower for $9.95 and that was on cassette so maybe I did pay a tenner for it. Now there is a fun fact a bit of trivia here about this game Killer Guerrilla. The original programmer was Adrian Stevens and Stevens wrote Killer Guerrilla at the age of 17 after buying a magazine with screenshots of Donkey Kong and apparently MicroPower paid him £400 for the game. Now that might not sound like a lot in 2021 but in 1983 that was the equivalent of $1,168 in today's money so back then that would have been a lot of dosh. It's a shame that after completing the four levels the player just returns to the first level and the game repeats but what's good is that it gets faster and there's more barrels and better still the girders on the first level acquire more holes. You also get an extra life for completing the fourth level and it basically becomes a game where you chase the high score against friends and family. I almost forgot this guy the guy that programmed Killer Guerrilla also programmed Vigilante 8 on the PlayStation and correct me if I'm wrong but that was a brilliant game fantastic game so he had a legit career in game development and for all I know probably still does now this is probably the trickiest level timing is everything and you put one foot wrong on one of those platforms and you fall to your death so thank goodness there's no timer here because I do like to take my time and I do remember as a kid as a child thinking this was one of the hardest games ever and it took me about six months to pass this level but then the one day I watched my uncle do it and then my strategy going forward for all of my games was to watch my uncle play them first and then just copy his strategy so we've made it to the final level hopefully this time I'll be able to release the bolts for the scaffolding or are they referred to as rivets I've done well to get all this way with three lives that doesn't normally happen oh and apologies it wasn't supposed to go on this long it was opposed to have completed it like four or five minutes ago but this is always one of the problems about playing a game unscripted and just talking all the way through it I mean this level is quite difficult and there's still a challenge it still holds up you see that he just nipped me there I thought I'd gotten away with it you watch this will be a massive embarrassment I won't be able to finish this last level which is a shame because I wanted to show you the continuation of the first level once you bring down the scaffolding just because it mixes things up a bit and the holes in the ground and obstacles are slightly different could you imagine if this game had like ten levels it probably would have got a master game or an AA rave and that's always been a criticism of Donkey Kong of mine just aren't enough levels right come on almost there must concentrate come on jump sometimes you jump and I don't know if it's the control the controls or oh there we go see you wouldn't want to be a he's actually landed on his chin bloody hell so not too bad I'll finish with two lives considering I haven't played it in God knows how many years and now I get to show you the first level and and the difference look at that not bad not bad so I won't keep you any longer if you like this video please let me know in the comment section please subscribe if you haven't already please share with other like-minded people and just so you don't miss any future videos that I release don't forget to ring that bell as it will send you notification as soon as I upload well thanks again for watching and until next time bye