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(red), slows down enemies (green), or freezes enemies
(blue), potions that heal, and stone amulets that provide
temporary invincibility. Finally, certain doors require finding keys to open.
Besides environmental hazards, like falling stones, Soulless is filled with a wide variety of flying, floating, running,
crawling, and shooting enemies that all must be avoided.
Each screen has no lack of challenge. Because Rizek’s
jump distance is always a fixed length, Soulless forces
you to get creative when landing on certain platforms. Unfortunately, it’s this fixed jump mechanic and sometimes
all-too-specific landing spots that lead to the greatest frustration with the game. For greater accuracy, a soft touch
and a joystick with a shorter throw distance works better
helpful for jotting down the order of the stones, the
combination map and poster, stickers, and a companion
CD containing 600MB of bonus material. The CD’s jewel
case also contains a combination16 page comic and instruction booklet. Needless to say, it’s quite the formidable
retail package.
While the commercial versions of Soulless are well worth
checking out, it’s notable that the game has now been
made free to download for use in your favorite Commodore 64 emulator. Soulless was tested on a British (PAL)
Commodore 64c and an American (NTSC) Commodore
128DCR, as well as in the C64 Forever Plus Edition
(2013, Cloanto) emulator package, which was used to
capture this review’s screenshots. There were no notable
performance variations on any of the test platforms.
for jumping than a looser joystick does. This jump
mechanic also plays a role in getting past certain
obstacles, sometimes requiring alternate plans of attack,
and is a puzzle element of its own. If you’re not careful,
you can even fall through to a previous screen. Those
easily frustrated need not apply!
Soulless is available in a wide range of formats, including
5.25” floppy disk, cassette tape, cartridge, and digital
download. Most formats are also available bundled with a
companion CD-ROM and combination poster and map, as
well as other paper work, though these are also available
for purchase separately. For those who own the companion CD-ROM, the digital download files and copies of the
printed material are all included, which makes playing in
your emulator of choice trivial.
Soulless is both NTSC and PAL compatible, and its
joystick-only control means that it's even playable on the
Commodore 64 GS console. The version reviewed came
with an internally LED illuminated purple transparent
cartridge shell, three printed spirit stone sheets, which are
If you don’t mind Rizek’s lack of offensive capabilities, the
finicky jump mechanic, and puzzle-centric nature of the
gameplay, there’s little not to recommend about this
polished production. It’s an incredibly challenging action
-adventure game that makes a fine addition to the
Commodore 64’s immense library.