''Head Over Heels'' is an

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

video game released by

Ocean Software Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchester. ...

in 1987 for several

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data buses of ...

home computers. It uses an isometric engine that is similar to the

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and p ...

technique first developed by

Ultimate Play the Game Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher, founded in 1982, by ex- arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games fo ...

. ''Head Over Heels'' is the second isometric game by

Jon Ritman Jon Ritman is a game designer and programmer notable for his work on 1980s computer games, primarily for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC home computers. His first experience with a computer was when he was 13, his first computer was a Sinclair ...

and Bernie Drummond, after their earlier ''

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book '' Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939 ...

'' computer game was released in 1986. The game received very favourable reviews and was described as an all time classic. In 2003, Retrospec released a

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the sa ...

of ''Head Over Heels'' for Microsoft Windows,

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

BeOS BeOS is an operating system for personal computers first developed by Be Inc. in 1990. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was positioned as a multimedia platform that could be used by a substantial population of desktop users a ...

, and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

. In 2019, Piko Interactive released an Atari ST port of ''Head Over Heels'' for

Atari Jaguar The Atari Jaguar is a home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and released in North America in November 1993. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it competed with the 16-bit Sega Genesis, the Super NES and t ...

. A

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

port was released on October 28, 2021.

Gameplay

The player controls two characters instead of just one, each with different abilities. Head can jump higher than Heels, control himself in the air, and fire

doughnuts A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franc ...

from a hooter to paralyze enemies. Heels can run twice as fast as Head, climb certain staircases that Head cannot, and carry objects around a room in a bag. These abilities become complementary when the player combines them after completing roughly a sixth of the game. Compared to its predecessors, the game offers unique and revolutionary gameplay, complex puzzles, and more than 300 rooms to explore. Drummond contributed some famously surreal touches, including robots (controlled by push switches) that bore a remarkable resemblance to the head of

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

(then

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rule ...

) on the body of a

Dalek The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by writer Terry Nation and first appeared in the 1963 ''Doctor Who ...

. Other surreal touches include enemies with the heads of elephants and staircases made of dogs that teleport themselves away as soon as Head enters the room.

Plot

Headus Mouthion (Head) and Footus Underium (Heels) are two spies from the planet Freedom. They are sent to Blacktooth to liberate the enslaved planets of Penitentiary, Safari, Book World and Egyptus, and then to defeat the Emperor to prevent further planets from falling under his rule. Captured and separated, the spies are placed in the prison headquarters of Castle Blacktooth. They must first escape, then break through the market to the orbiting Moonbase. From there they can teleport down to each planet and locate and reclaim the stolen crowns. Liberating the planets and defeating the Emperor will allow Head and Heels to return to Freedom as heroes.

Development

re-used and modified the isometric engine he created for ''

'' to support the control of 2 players instead of just 1. Modifications were made to the code for the C64 version to lower processor load, but in the end there was very little difference between the versions.

Reception

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History Th ...

'' awarded ''Head over Heels'' 9/10 in the June 1987 issue and the game was placed at number 5 in the ''Your Sinclair'' official top 100. ''Sinclair User'' also awarded 9/10. It was chosen by ''Your Sinclair'' editors and readers as the ZX Spectrum's 1987 Game of the Year. ''

Crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch s ...

'' magazine gave ''Head over Heels'' 97% and called the game "The best fun you are likely to have with a Spectrum for quite some time". ''

Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazi ...

'' gave the Commodore 64 conversion of the game 98%: enough for its coveted ''Gold Medal Award''; the joint highest score in the magazine's history; and the first Gold Medal of the year - in its August

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airpor ...

issue. It was described as "An all time classic - not to be missed for any reason".

References

External links

''Head over Heels''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

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''Head over Heels''
at Hall of Light
Analysis of ''Head over Heels''
at gamestudies.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Head Over Heels (video game) 1987 video games Action-adventure games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Amstrad PCW games Atari 8-bit family games Atari Jaguar games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games MSX games Ocean Software games Piko Interactive games Video games set in castles Video games set on fictional planets Video games with isometric graphics ZX Spectrum games Video games developed in the United Kingdom