STORY
Dizzy is enjoying himself in Yolk Village, when he finds himself magically summoned by the evil wizard Zaks.  Zaks is your arch enemy, but he has summoned you to ask a favour.  He informs you that the 'Stone of Balance' has gone missing.  This is a magic Stone that gives balance to all magic in the universe, and without it, magic doesn't work as it should.  Even Zaks' spells don't work properly!  Zaks wants you to go to The Other Side, find another Stone of Balance, and then return back home with the Stone.  Zaks knows that you will refuse to help him, but he has ways of persuading you.  He has eggnapped your beloved Daisy.  You cannot let anything happen to Daisy, so you have no choice - you MUST go to The Other Side and find a Stone of Balance if you want to save her. 

After arriving on The Other Side, you begin looking for the Stone of Balance.  You ask around, and discover that the Stone used to stay at the top of a mountain, just across the sea.  Unfortunately, the Stone has disappeared, and no one knows where it is now.  Still, that is a good place to start looking.  Now, how are you going to get across the sea?

GAMEPLAY
This is the first chapter of Dizzy And The Other Side. Alexandru Simion (the author) has cleverly designed the game so that can be finished in 3 different ways - you can fly over the sea, swim under the sea, or sail across the sea.  I enjoyed completing all 3 ways, and each way has different puzzles to solve.  The game can be played using keyboard or joypad.  If you have a rumble pad, I highly recommend you use that.  The pad vibrates when Dizzy is injured, which adds a lot of fun to the game. 

As with most Dizzy games, you can carry up to 3 items at a time. Your lives, energy level, and the number of diamonds (there are 10 to find) are shown at the top of the screen, as well as the screen's title.  The game also has a nice 'Save \\ Load' option, so you can save your progress.  I found this extremely useful, as the game is quite challenging.  I found jumping through the clouds quite tricky at times.  I found myself missing the cloud, and falling back to the ground sometimes, so it was handy being able to save my progress. 

      Z & X  -    Left & Right
      Space  -     Jump
      Enter  -      Pick up items and access inventory
      Escape -    Save \\ Load \\ Restart menu

GRAPHICS
The graphics are quite colourful and cartoony, which makes the game a lot of fun to play.  The author has borrowed some graphics from previous Dizzy games, and it was fun to spot them.  Dizzy's movements are very smooth, and his unique style of somersaulting is fun to watch.  I love the expressions he pulls when he falls too far, or stays too long underwater.  I thought the donkey was adorable - who could resist him.

MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS
The music is very cheerful and bubbly.  It changes every so often, so you don't hear the same music all the way through.  There are some lovely sound effects, such as Dizzy jumping, the donkey braying, and Dizzy being injured.

PUZZLES
The puzzles are quite tricky at times, so you have to think about what you are doing.  You can only carry 3 items at a time and you frequently have to drop items in order to pick something else up.  I thought it was very clever how you can take 3 different paths to complete the game.  Each path has different challenges and different puzzles.

SUMMARY
This is a lovely game that all Dizzy fans (and arcade fans) will love.  The story is well written, and you can play the game 3 different ways.  It is fun to play, and simple to control.  All the characters you know and love are here, as well as some new ones.  The graphics are classic 'Dizzy' style, and are lovely to see.  I enjoyed solving all the puzzles, as they were quite challenging at times.  The 'Save' feature is very handy for saving your progress.  It means you do not have to start back at the beginning each time. 

Why not download it, and give it a try?  What have you got to lose? 

UPDATE

The full game can now be downloaded and enjoyed.  Please use the download link to go to Dizzy's site.