How the game works

The controls, in the game's words

The Mega Drive pad has three buttons, and the game gives each one job:

The remake adds its own pause menu on Esc (or the controller's Menu button): saves, settings, cheats. How to play has the rest.

The inventory is a queue

Dizzy carries at most three things. The status screen (A) shows them with their names, top to bottom, newest first.

• Picking something up puts it first and pushes the others along. With three already carried, the oldest is put down where the new one was lying.
• Pressing B with nothing to pick up puts down, or uses, the oldest thing (the bottom one on the status screen). Used in the right place, it does its job; anywhere else, it's simply dropped at Dizzy's feet.
• So to use one particular thing, it has to be the oldest. If it isn't, put the others down and pick them up again: each comes back as the newest.
• Picking up comes first: if something lies within reach, B takes it instead of using what Dizzy holds. Step away from objects on the ground before using a thing. Doors come before both: B at a door goes through it.

Energy, fruit and lives

The energy bar (DAMAGE on the panel when it runs down) empties as Dizzy gets hurt: spiders, flames, drips in the caves, a long fall, too long under water. When it's empty, a life goes and Dizzy starts again at a safe spot near where he fell. Some things (spikes, a dragon's fire, a fire on the floor) take a life at once.

• Fruit gives energy back: cherries, apples, pears and the like grow all over the world. Walk into them to eat them; they don't come back.
• Lives are the eggs on the panel. They don't come back either; when the last one goes, the game is over.

The remake's pause menu has Cheats (infinite lives, infinite energy) and quick saves (F5, F8) for anyone who would rather not worry.

The 250 stars

Magic stars are scattered over the whole world: 220 in its places, ten in the bubble trench and twenty along the minecart's track. Walk into one to take it; the panel counts how many are left. Zaks' star gate opens only when all 250 are taken. The stars page counts them place by place.

Doors, huts and keys

Doors are not walked through: stand at a door and press B. A locked door needs its key: drop the key at the door (B, with the key the oldest thing carried). The key is used up and the door stays open.

Elevators and lifts

The treehouse's elevators and the lifts in the mines and the castle are locked until their key is dropped on them (stand in the middle of the car). Then:

• Stand in the middle of the car and press B: it goes to its other end. Dizzy has to be clear of the floor on both sides of the shaft, or the car pushes him off.
• An idle elevator comes to Dizzy by itself when he waits below it, or above it.
• The mines' lifts need their control machine mended first.

Ropes and hooks

With the rope carried (anywhere in the three slots), B under a metal hook throws the rope over it and Dizzy swings: he lets go at the far end of the swing. Every hook has its own swing.

Water

Wading is fine; deep water is another matter.

• Breath: under water Dizzy holds his breath for about two seconds, then his energy drains. The aqua lung, carried, lets him breathe for as long as he likes.
• Swimming: without flippers, Dizzy sinks and walks on the bottom. With the flippers, each press of jump is a stroke upwards.

Platforms and the ground

Wooden planks, branches and walkways are solid from above and open from below: jump up through them. Rock and brick are solid all round. Some ground moves: logs ride the river, platforms bob, and the clouds slowly sink under a Dizzy who stands still.

The subgames

A few moments change the game altogether:

• The plank and the bubble trench: walked off Blackheart's ship, Dizzy sinks into a trench of rising bubbles, with ten stars and an oxygen gauge. Ride the bubbles, come up for air, leave by the top right.
• The minecart: a ride down the mines' old railway, twenty stars along it. Left and right steer at the junctions, up and down change speed, rocks and other carts are deadly; the four ends of the line lead to four different places.
• The archery: the trolls' castle's guards at their windows. Move the crosshair, jump shoots, B raises the bow to block what they throw back. Eight hits win. (With the prince's crossbow in hand, Dizzy doesn't take part at all.)
• Zaks' tower: a climb up narrow ledges through bouncing balls, to the wizard himself.
• Theodore's puzzles: the good magician Theodore hides in five places (an invisible spot: the status screen would call it "nothing"). Press B on one and his sliding puzzle starts: sixteen pieces shuffled, an hourglass running. Move the frame with the directions; hold A (any button works) and press a direction to swap that piece with its neighbour. Solved in time, it's worth an extra life. They're on the first floor's far right, near the start of Crystal Falls, at the far east of the grasslands, on Dock Street and in front of Zaks' star gate.

The remake's Cheats menu has a Freeze timers switch for the subgames' clocks and the oxygen.

Secrets

• A bonus life: on the title screen, press Start while holding B and left: the game starts with an extra life.
• The subgame menu: on the title screen, press right, up, B, A, down, up, B, down, up, B (with the keyboard: Right, Up, X, Z, Down, Up, X, Down, Up, X). A menu lets you play each subgame on its own: the puzzles, the bubbles, the minecart, the archery and Zaks' tower.
• The Purple Rain bonus: in English, after the shopkeeper has sold his bean, take Dylan's cow to the prince instead. "My name is PRINCE and I am FUNKY! GO FOR PURPLE RAIN BONUS!!!!" He leaves his secret sign. Drop it into one of the pools in the cave under the graveyard: 25,000 points, and a purple rain.

The score

The score goes up for every star, every problem solved and every new thing found. It has no other use, apart from bragging.