Way back in October 1962, Sabrina Spellman appeared for the first time in Archie's Mad
House.
A comic book which ran from 1959 to 1982.
This proved so popular that a 1970s animated TV series was spawned followed by another
one right at the end of the 90s.
Sabrina Spellman has also appeared in various other comics and of course, there's currently
a new Netflix series based directly on the latest comic books.
Now, clearly that's far too relevant and modern for me to deal with, so THIS game is based
on the 1996 TV series entitled, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, starring Melissa Joan Hart.
It's probably the version most people are familiar with, and also a far less dark outing
than what we have today, which is unfortunate, but let's take a look anyway...
Ahhhh, the late 90s.
This box radiates that sparkly twee 90s feeling.
"Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Brat Attack", released in 199 by Knowledge Adventure Inc.
and developed by Hypnotix.
"An Action Adventure in the Other Realm"; "Featuring the voice of Melissa Joan Hart
from the hit TV series"
Yes, no expense spared here.
The rear of the box reveals a blurb on a scroll, a preview of the levels to come and an age
rating.
This shouldn't be too hard then.
Specifications for the time are fairly light.
This Windows '95 program requires a Pentium 133, 16MB of RAM, a Quad speed CD drive, 16
bit Windows compatible sound and 256 on screen colours.
This CD also caters for Macintosh users, but that's not something we're interested with
today.
Inside the box are 3 items.
A Havas Interactive registration card.
A Sierra Home/Knowledge Adventure catalogue, with page upon page of both bewildering and
exciting software and the Jewel case, containing both the game CD and manual.
There's nothing of note really in the manual, we can pick it up as we go along.
Being a CD, paired with Windows '95 or '98, we are blessed with Auto Run, meaning that
almost immediately after inserting the CD, we are graced with this screen.
Along with installing, we have the option to play a demo of Spell Bound.
This was the first Sabrina PC game, released in 1998, based more heavily around, well,
spells.
It's nice enough, and although normally I'd say, we'll save that for another day, that's
really not going to happen.
What will happen, is INSTALLATION.
That didn't take long.
Alright, time for some Sabrina action.
We begin with a nice little story, bringing us up to speed about some kind of magic beanie
arriving and Salem the cat running off with it.
Which leaves us tasked with finding the bloody cat and retrieving the beanie.
That's really not a beanie though is it?
Now, it's obvious to most Windows '95 users that this is one of those 90s Multimedia type
games, allowing limited point,click and navigational operations.
Most people would refer to them today as Flash Games, which isn't that far from the truth.
This game was actually created with Macromedia Director.
A tool used for many a CD-ROM based experience in the 90s and early 00s, and in fact Macromedia
were the people who created Flash in the first place.
Adobe would buy them out in 2005 leading to Adobe Flash and Adobe Director, but really
they're the same technology underneath.
So, that means our gameplay will be pretty limited.
As Sabrina we can navigate either by mouse clicks, or using directional arrows.
Our task is really one of collection.
First up is to collect these items found all over the place.
These build up inventory, which can then be used to form spells.
Being a multimedia game, we can obtain new spells by finding Compact Discs, which will
then appear as recipes in the "Labtop".
If you have all the items for a spell, you can make it.
Depending on the type you will then get several hits that you can use on yourself for spells
like invisibility, or on enemy foes to incapacitate them briefly.
Anyway, our first task, is to find that bloody cat.
He's in the mall, behind these giant rat guinea pig things..
Salem then tells us that Sabrina's cousin Amanda - who I presume is the titular brat
- has taken the beanie thing.
A painting on the wall then then tells us to collect 4 items in order to defeat Amanda;
a Yummy Dummy, Goody Two-Shoes, Hex Reflex and a Tantrum Tamer... and that's really the
rest of the game.
The Yummy Dummy at the school is first, and it's from this point on where you really realise
how damn finicky and crappy it is to move your protagonist.
She gets stuck, all the damn time, especially if you're using the mouse to move, and coupled
with targeting enemies with the mouse, it gets pretty frustrating.
Coupled with that, collision detection is worse than the Justice episode of Red Dwarf.
Ahhhhhhhhrgggggggg.
Anyway, we need to get some sprinkles from the kitchen, then kill a frog to get it's
sweat, then we can get the cake.
Great.
Perfect.
The inclusion of Nick Bakay as Salem, with his nonchalantly indolent comments is, I must
say, quite welcome throughout the game.
Next up are the Goody Two-Shoes, which are in the mall.
Now, this is where the game turns into Sabrina the Teenage Glitch *GUFFALW*, because it's
not that difficult to get stuck on an elevator and never be able to move again.
When this happens, you need to resume your game, and redo the level.
It's annoying, but given it only takes about 10 minutes to get through each section, it's
survivable.
This shoe shop looks crazy as sh*t.
These little goblin cops are irritating as hell as well.
Next is the Hex-Reflex.
Now this one is in a Castle, which you access through a magical book, naturally.
Now, I actually really like the feel of this level.
It helps that I love castles, but, oh my god, that fire shooting bastard needs to be punched
in his frickin' FACE.
The final object, for whatever reason, is on Mars.
A Mars filled with volcanic eruptions, snow and ski-lifts.
Now, I actually got a little stuck here, because I didn't realise that you need to use a spell
to freeze the lava.
This mechanic of using spells on your surroundings hasn't appeared anywhere else in the game,
but that's fine, it still makes sense.
But then you get this new potion, which isn't in your spell list, nor can you freeze over
this lava to get to where you need to be.
It took me about 20 minutes to realise you just need to click on this volcano to stop
the flow, THEN you can freeze the lava pool and cross over.
I mean, in hindsight, it makes some sense, but really, for a game for 8 year olds, IT
NEEDED MORE DIRECTION AT THIS POINT DAMMIT.
I'm not even upset that I couldn't work out a childs game.
Nope.
Not me.
The last level is a strange maze.
To be honest, it's probably the easiest part.
Then we meet Amanda, we chuck some things at her.
AND THE GAME IS FINISHED.
And actually, even though it has many, many flaws.
I quite enjoyed the experience.
There's something so nostalgic about these Macromedia titles.
They're really crap, but they hold a place in history.
A place where multimedia was really quite exciting, and where titles like this were
popping up faster than oiled Push Pops.
There are certainly better games to play.
But if you want a burst of Sabrina orientated nostalgia, then this is actually not a bad
game to get hold of.
Thanks for watching.