This is the third adventure game in the Dizzy series, and one of my favourite games growing up. I loved the feel of this adventure, of exploring what felt like a huge world filled with dragons and trolls.
Looking back it stands out just how many games were being released constantly, and from the perspective of a child in the UK they grew in complexity incredibly quickly. This was released in 1989, I know that I had a NES after this, and then in 1992 my brother got a SNES with F-Zero and Super Mario World. That is just an incredible rate of progress.
This entry is the first to include the menu system where you can select which item to drop, or in fact choose to not drop anything. This saves you from the many accidental deaths in the previous game. You also get an inventory upgrade so that you can carry five items at a time, which means there is significantly less backtracking, and the game is almost entirely around platforming and puzzle solving. For instance you grow a magic beanstalk by planting the magic bean you get in an underground world, and then climb it to reach a castle in the sky.
I remembered the world being so much bigger than it is. It feels like when you go back to primary school as an adult and realise how small the chairs are. There are however multiple distinct areas from a full castle, to a pier, to a tree-house village, to a volcano, and more. The art style is significantly improved, which much better use of colour. This is also the first entry to introduce Dizzy’s family, the Yolk Folk. Each one has their own design and character, and several of them give you important items in your quest.
Unfortunately this game still has the final quest of collecting 30 coins, and even includes the same design of having several hidden behind random pieces of scenery. Hopefully that is gone by the next entry, but I really cannot remember.