Let's Go Dizzy: The Story of The Oliver Twins

Sources: (Book) "Let's Go Dizzy: The Story of The Oliver Twins" by Chris Wilkens & Roger M. Kean.
A very special thanks to Philip Oliver, Andrew Oliver, Andrew Joseph, Lukasz Kur.

The Oliver Twins are back with yet another Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game for everyone to enjoy. This time around however it is quite special. We all know their generosity from the release of the NES games DreamWorld Pogie and Wonderland Dizzy, titles we all knew about but figured had been lost forever. I even spoke with the Oliver Twins back in 2002/03'ish about Wonderland Dizzy and back then it was no where to be found, sadly a hard disk crash back then put an end to a small Wonderland Dizzy i had planned.

Well enough about Wonderland Dizzy, because this page is a tribute to the latest news from Philip and Andrew Oliver, a Nintendo game I bet no one, other than those who worked on it, knew existed.... Mystery World Dizzy!

What we have here is...
The game seems to be a NES'ified version of Fantasy World Dizzy, also known as Dizzy 3, which was released for platforms such as the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 in October 1989, and later the Amiga and MS-DOS in 1991.

I say NES'ified because Fantasy World Dizzy doesn't contain any stars to collect, but instead coins, in the original there's an "up side down" world that can be found inside a well, the NES version instead has a water cave where you need some scuba gear to survive and recover a bean that looks more like a sausage. The final tower is different from the original as well, but with that said, I tend to like the NES version better as the world layout seems a bit better.

Of course the PC and Amiga versions have more colors and better graphics, I actually find the NES versions cartoony artwork much more appealing, maybe it's because my first encounter with Dizzy was a NES game, Dizzy the Adventurer for those interested, and they all more or less use the same style graphics.

I believe the game is about the same size as Dizzy the Adventurer, a small game that can be completed relatively quick. This is not a bad thing in my oppinion, I got lost in Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy and because the game doesn't have save feature or password, I never completed it, same goes for Wonderland Dizzy, yet another unreleased NES Dizzy game. The control in Mystery World Dizzy is great, there are only a few problems - one of them is being able to jump securely on the platform in the polluted water where Dizzy may roll right off the platform.

Unlike most of the other NES Dizzy games I've played, Dizzy has been able to carry 3 items, in this game it's only 2. The items menu has been moved to the status bar instead of being seperate menu you would have to access to select an item, this makes item selection a lot faster. An item sub menu is still available and can be found by pressing select.

Also, the game seems to have a 2-player option, press select on the titlescreen. It seems a bit strange to have a 2-player turn based option in a game like Dizzy though.

Playing Mystery World Dizzy was a blast, it reminded me of Dizzy Adventurer which probably is my favourite Dizzy game, only Mystery World Dizzy has a cleaner look, the puzzles in Mystery are little tougher than in "Dizzy the Adventurer", but it is actually a very solid NES game which sadly never saw the light of day, back then.

To be part of somthing bigger...
Mystery World Dizzy was never intended to be a single game release, yet instead it was part of something bigger, a NES multigame cartridge that was in development late 1992 and supposedly ready for release sometime in 1993.

It was to be called "The Excellent Dizzy Collection", the largest multigame cartridge ever seen, a 5 in 1 cartridge that would have included "Wonderland Dizzy", "Panic Dizzy" (unreleased), "Mystery World Dizzy", "Go! Dizzy Go!" (released on the Quattro Arcade, an American exclusive) and finally the Aladdin Deck Enhancer pack-in game "Dizzy the Adventurer".

However the development of Wonderland Dizzy had been delayed a few times and wasn't finished until April 1993. By that time Camerica had went out of business and I'm guessing Codemasters were not too keen on releasing any more NES games that late in the life on the NES.

The Oliver Twins "Let's Play" for the game...
Yet again the Philip and Andrew have released a Let's Play video for Mystery World Dizzy. What's been in storage in that loft for all these years is truly amazing. Make sure to watch this video...

Long lost, yet here it is...
Once again, as already mentioned, today Mystery World Dizzy is available for everyone to play, thanks to the Philip and Andrew Oliver and the people helping out behind the scene, Lukasz Kur and Andrew Joseph (yolkfolk.com). The game is playable at www.mysteryworlddizzy.com and a ROM download, to be used with your emulator of choice, is also available.

Mystery World Dizzy has received a few bug fixes, such as sound, since it was recivered from the loft, originally the game was only in English, but Lukasz Kur has been at it again and has added Polish and Portuguese language options, as well as a "casual" mode which offers more lives to the player. The game has also been fixed to run on both PAL and NTSC systems, it will attempt to automaticly detect the TV mode, but it can also be changed manually from the brand new opening menu. All in all the improvements gives a better impression of a finished game.

As if that isn't enough, just like DreamWorld Pogie received a limited physical cartridge run, Mystery World Dizzy is getting the same treatment. However it will not happen until the DreamWorld Pogie cartridge has been shipped to all backers a few weeks from now, so watch this space for a link to the kickstarter.

Or.. you could simply just make your own cartridge...

For your convenience I've created a map for Mystery World Dizzy which can be found below.

If you're a little stuck in the game maybe my notes below can help you to get unstuck?

The Castle Dungeon

• The apple can be used to try to bribe the troll to let you out (but will it work?).

• Feed the bread to the rat.

The Door Bridge

• Pull lever in the Banquet Hall (above the door) to open door.

The Countryside

• Feed meaty bone, found in The Tall Tower, to the Armourog
  (Pink Rhino).

• Throw 2 rocks into the polluted river to displace the water
• When jumping here, from the right side, make sure you have one foot over the edge to the water, or you will roll into the water when attempting to land on the small platform in the water.
• When jumping from the left side, stand as har to the left as possible on the smallest path tile near the river, or you'll fall into the water when rolling onto the platform.

The Castle Moat

• Use whip to tie around crocodiles snout
  (press b when you're standing on the crocodile).
• The whip is obtained from Denzil in the Banquet Hall of the castle.

Dragons Domain

• Use sleeping potion to make the pink dragon go to sleep, stand to the left of the little blue stone or you'll get hit by the fireballs.
• Sleeping potion is obtained from Dozy (The Docks and Pier).

The Warehouse

• There's an extra life in the single barrel to the left of the spider.

1-UPS

• The Warehouse (There's an extra life in the single barrel to the left of the spider.)
• Bedroom Chambers (Upper Castle)
• The Wishing Well (Nearby)

The magic bean

• Plant the Magic bean left of Dylan, there's a black spot.
• Use magic water on the magic bean.

How to get magic water from the well (to water magic bean)

• Get Well handle from Dora in the Yolkfolk Treehouse
• Attach rope to well
• At the bottom of the well, attach bucket to the rope
• Use well handle to retrieve the bucket

The Green Dragon

• Carry Egg to the Green Dragon, it is found just inside the entrance of Zaks Cloud Castle.
• Use pickaxe to break wall near the green dragon (where the "shield" object is). This will protect Dizzy in Zaks Cloud Castle.

How to defeat Zaks

• Bounce back lightningbolts at Zaks.