Head over Heels

I'm not keen on this type of game, despite playing the vast majority. Of the many ones I've played, this one is easily the best. The ZZap review is way over the top though, 98% Graphics?? I'd still recommend playing the Spectrum version over the 64 incarnation.

Head over hells, wow what a good game. On the framerate the C64 is not the best, but I like the new song in the game. For me the Amstrad version is the better but I have only a real C64 today and I really like it. Forget the pc version (what a piece of shit). Play this gem on Spectrum, Amstrad, C64 or msx. An absolute masterpiece on this plateforme.

10/10

To this day I can never understand the fascination with this game. So highly rated back in the day and much loved even today. Another game that just didn't do it for me. The other issue I have with this game was that it was a direct port from the Spectrum. There's nothing unusual in that it's just that they made no effort to "spruce it up" and even though Speccy fans loved them I just couldn't stand monochrome graphics. I beleive the 2004 PC version is how it should have looked on the C64.

This game is a "tour de force" in level design. The sound and graphics aren't that great, but the game gets top marks because the game and it's design is simply second-to-none.
Really very brilliant.

DC2012: replace the word perfect with the word random and you are correct, The Amstrad colours made no sense, some proper selection would have made it nice instead of ugly. Where the C64 wins for me is the sound which was worth the price of admission alone 2nd only to Wizball for me. All other versions are 2nd best for me because of the SID (including remakes).

One of the best games I've ever played. I've got to say though I'm surprised the Amstrad version isn't linked, because it's my my view the best version of them all. It had a perfect colour palette, something that was overdone in the 16-bit versions. I'm not knowledgeable in the C64's technical capabilities, but if it where possible to use the Amstrads graphics, it would have made all the difference to the atmosphere. To each our own, but I find monochrome graphics depressing, hi-res or not.

Saying Head Over Heels is too hard is crazy, Fair enough some of the deaths are a little unfair like when you're out on a limb and you die either way from the random moving enemies but still, If you lose lives so early just restart and try again.

For a PC remake try 2007's Head over Heels Clone by Hugo Gil, Its the same graphics but well chosen colour (not perfect but still) Forget the Retrospec version.

Yes, yes, it's a wonderful game. Still - I can't escape the spectrum feeling of the graphics. Why can't he put in some sprites for the characters, so that they stand out from the background? A layover would have done nicely.

Nice relaxing isometric arcade adventure. Puzzles to solve and pretty amusing as well. I loved it

Excellent game in everyway!!!

Head Over Heels is superb on any machine ... This is my fav 8-bit game of all time ... Which I have completed twice, and never managed to repeat since.
Now, the C64 version is very good (much better than the MSX and A-8 versions) but suffers some slow down in places. The music is far better than it's Speccy/CPC counterparts too.
I still love this game, even now, and I'm gonna give it the same score as I give it on any other machine: 10/10 ... Seriously, it is that good!

Classic 3D type game came out the spectrum first.
The C64 games great I love the spectrum type glowing grahics

Without a doubt my all-time favourite C64-game... That I never actually completed. Brilliant graphics and playability. A true classic that even today looks decent and is a lot of fun.

Much more than a game.. A life experience.. Immense scenarios to lose yourself.. And live again.

I don't understand myself: I absolutely love this game, even though I've never ever completed it. Not even close 10/10, without any exaggeration.

This is one of my favourite games of all time on any platform. I honestly think it deserves the 98% Zzap rating. Sure, it can be tough, but it is doable/completable - unlike some C64 games. The PC remake is definently worth getting.

Absolutely one of the best games ever on the C64. I spent a large part of summer 1988 with this game, and have to say that this is the single most rewarding gaming experience I have ever had.

Graphics - absolutely beautiful. People are asking for colour - well, which one do you prefer: 160 x 200 resolution with many colours or 320 x 200 with a single colour? I think the beauty in this game lies in the details of the hi-res graphics, in multicolor the graphics would lose all the charming details. Ok, maybe a hi-res sprite overlay could work for the characters, but then the backgrounds would still be blocky.

Sounds -gotta say I love the jingles.

Puzzles & game world - a huge and atmospheric world to explore. Some devious puzzles and a lot of extremely difficult jumping action.

The quite recent PC remake is very good, but I prefer the original C64 audio scheme.

So-so. A somewhat cutesy game, with strikingly clear yet monochrome graphics and a learning curve the size of K2. That's the part that ruins it for me. Plus I didn't like the game calling me a "DUMMY" just because I was new at the game.

I believe there is a remake or two of this game over at remakes. Org. The classics appear to be alive y well...

I wouldn't exactly call the puzzles in this one awe-inspiring, but on the other hand, which 3D-isometric arcade adventure had such puzzles ? Basically all of these games were mostly directed to mappers. My personal favourite is lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=1811 Nosferatu. It's just that it's atmosphere worked better for me.

Nevertheless, Head Over Heels is a sprawling game, and if this kind of arcade adventure is your thing, then it's on of the best you can find on the C64. More speed would be nice, or even passwords once you reach a different section. Starting again from scratch sucks imo. Or I'm just spoiled from modern games & emulators.

Excellent game, I loved the concept and the difficulty level was something acceptable (sometimes the perspective would make an easy task something impossible). Great puzzle game.

A masterpiece in gaming! Brill music, lovely detailed (fast!) isometric GFX and above all addictive as hell. Take one character who jumps, one who runs and put them together... Head Over Heels. A simple concept that spawned the most devious of puzzles! Classic!

I've already written a comment about this but I just wanted to point out that there's an excellent PC/Mac remake of this available here -
retrospec.sgn.net/game-overview.php?link=hoh

Forget about the graphics, and concentrate on the absorbing and challenging gameplay. Not to mention the technical achievement of almost nullifying the Spectrum having a processor four times as fast (for a game where the C64's custom hardware was no use) Colour would have made it too slow, and Spectrum fans put up with a lot worse when there was a decent game underneath. If you want great graphics, go and squander £40 on something you'll be bored of in 2 days.

Almost perfect, but just a little too hard for me. As for the graphics, do you guys really think it would be possible to have colour graphics and all the rooms in just 64k?? I think if they had coloured it, the game would have been multi-load. Anyway, to me, at the time, I thought the graphics were astounding due the attention to detail, there is just so much variety in there.

Absolutely brilliant, one of my all-time favourite c64-games. Gorgeous graphics and great puzzles, what more can you ask for in a game?

Proved that Knight Lore & Alien 8 could have been done on the C64 if Ultimate had bothered. Excellent game.

A huge and very difficult game to play indeed. A lot of precision jumps are needed but overall it's just a lovely lovely game.

Whoever said that 3D isometric games couldn't be good on the C64 wants to play this.
Excellent!

Just looking at these wee chappies brought back memories for me. It was one of the games u thought "whit the hells going on here?". Graphics were shit but when the gameplay was as usefull as a soggy bit o' toilet roll, u tend not to notice they kind of things do u?

Erm... Cute but, damn frustrating. And if you don't play well it calls you a Dummy. I think I'll make my own self-judgements, thank you. Uni-color graphics aren't my thing either.

Another brilliant game of my past. I would like to know if anyone ever finished this also because despite being addictive and amazing, it was also infuriatingly hard. Why more modern gaming houses don't concentrate on the playablity and concepts rather than the look I do not know. Bring back the classics!

What was this game all about??? Whoever said to avoid it if you lack patience wasn't wrong! I got it on the six shooter pack from Dixons with the C64. Said cassette also contained Wizball so it's not suprising that this never stood a chance!

If anyone worked out how to play it, please let me know!

Just behind Dan Dare in my all time favourite C64 games. Ingenious, great fun, satisfying - brilliant. Quite hard, but, if it was easy, it wouldn't have been as much fun, would it?

This is the best thing you can write in 64kb (maybe less). No one will ever do better, and it beats 99% of the new pc/ps2 games. Some people don't like it because they never played it. It's a masterpiece of the human inteligence. 10+!!!

I remember playing this game as a kid! Me and my sister use to always play on it! It is one of the best games invented! I think I might get it back out of the loft! Has anyone ever completed this game? Haha! 10/10 for brilliance!!!

Decent enough game but tough as nails... Avoid if you lack patience...

I remember this one as being the C64 version of all those 'Ultimate' games your Spectrum owning mates had & I liked it for that reason above everything else I think! It was slow & difficult & at times very frustrating. I never completed it but then I never completed most of the C64 games I owned ... In fact, I can't think of any that I actualyl completed!!! Games were much harder back then :-)

An absolutely worse game, I hated it even because of it's shitty 3D-gfx and the ugly colorset. Look at the pix.. Waaaahhh! The Idea would have been great... 2/10

A stupidly hard game but worth playing. God has completed it, can you? Oh and ignore the fool below this comment, here's the REAL remake: retrospec.sgn.net/games/hoh/

This is definitely in my top 10 for the C64.
Brilliant (if slightly frustrating) isometric platforming action. I only managed to get four of the five crowns. I was tempted with a reset poke that granted invulnerability once but I got trapeed in a room that had an electified (or was it spiked) floor and couldn't get out.
There is a brilliant remake for the PC visit. Www.remakes.org
Ten out of Ten you have to play it!!!

Cheat:

In the start screen hit jump and character switch key continuously. This way you can get head to jump over the wall, and join head and heels right away. )

Very good game, nice puzzles, we played it 2 player, one controlling each character.

I agree with Thrust, actually one of the best game ever, not only for the c64...

Well!!

judging by the amount of comments on this page, a lot of people loved this game.

it was not the first isometric game by a long shot, neither was the c64 version the prettiest (amstrad had more colours, speccy ran a lot faster).

however, this game is really something very very very special. It has d e p t h. I completed it, all the levels and all the planets. It was my favourite ever "completion" feeling, unlike any ever experienced since. This game is so well designed, the levels are soo clever, when you complete a world, you are thinking phew - dare i go on and suffer more?? It is awesome. Better than impossible mission (which i completed), better than the last ninja series. If you can get past the monochrome graphics, and get into the game.. Im gonna have another play right now in fact. Why don't they make games like this anymore!! Awesome, 11/10.

Wouldn't the graphics look blocky on the C64 if they weren't in hi-res mono like the Speccy version? A classic, for sure, but some frustrating rooms. I finished it with cheats

This is the BEST game EVER for the C64/AMIGA/PC. The graphics are great for a game of this age, the gameplay is amazing, although I never got very far in it. Only got to the marketplace where head and heels meet up! THE BEST GAME!!!

Well I played it and played it and played it.
Never got through it.
dam it I tried so hard!
9/10

A good puzzle solving game, graphics not too good though.

I loved this game! It was part of a tape compilation of games "The magnificent seven" (if I remember correctly). The levels where so well done, although some screens were extremely hard and frustrating. I don't know how many hours I played it but I'm proud to say that I finished it and saved all the worlds aswell, without cheating of course. The idea with 2 different characters with different skills and the ability to join them to get an even better character was brilliant. Definitly one of the best C64 games IMHO.

The C64 version is probably the least accomplished of all of the versions of HoH I have played over the years, but that doesn't alter the fact that the game is a bone fide classic.

This MSX-game was good-looking but boring. The same thing goes with the 64 version. It looks very good and the sound/music is also great, but game-play is boring and imaginable poor.

Isometric 3D games are a bit short for C64. Head Over Heels is the best of them, easily, even though I must admit it is so hard I've never completed it. But games is simply a gem. One of my favourite top 10 games, ever (Amiga and PC included as a machines, even though this was released for Amiga too, and it is a good conversion)!

One of the greatest games I ever played. Two cute characters, delicate music and a lot of playability - better 2player game is only Bubble Bobble.

What a game! A game where you control 2 characters and you to must join together to help each other out progress thur this game. Maybe Mono Graphics but who cares! ...

When I first saw I thought this does'nt look like a good game - when I began to play I couldn't stop.
One of the best games on the C64 for me.
The gameplay is just great!

No matter graphics and sound because the concept and the hookability are incredible in this wonderfull and various 3disometric arcade adventure

This was the first isometric game to really make it on the C64 (well the first one I found anyway). Controlling two characters and getting them together to complete the game. Download this for your collection today.

Cool isometric action adventure. Hard as hell, nostalgic and rare and a must play if you call yourself a gamefan.

The best 8-bit game ever. I finished it on my Speccy way back in 1989. It's huge. It's got Atmosphere with a big A. It's actually the very first game I ever completed on a comp or a console - no wonder I remember it so fondly! Always prefered the Spectrum version to the CPC one (talk about an awful 'colorization'). Too bad they didn't make use of the C64 superior graphics; and why did they have to change the original tunes? Thankfully the gameplay is still the same and the Speccy-like graphics have still a wonderful sex-appeal. I would recommend Batman to anyone who enjoyed HoH; it's nearly the same engine (it came the year before), except that you're controlling only one character - which reacts more like Heels than Head.

Fantastic game - oh the atmosphere. The hires detail made this stand out among other games. I've completed it... It gets easier once you figure out the cat can jump on the dogs head and link up to be a fast, high jumping combo! (have you finished it yet guys!) the NES game solistic was 'inspired' by this - (never played an NES tho. ) fishduna- that was a truly excellent compilation wasn't it!

THE best game ever!!

The game, above all others, that reminds me of my youth. Sigh. Me and my best friend back then took turns in controlling each character. Eventually finding each other ( in the game that is!) to link up. Stunningly excellent puzzles and pixel perfect jumping skills needed. Why don't they make games like this anymore? Sniff whimper I'm off to dream about big trak... Sniff

Who needs sprites for a good game? Well not Head Over Heels from Ocean. I brought this game in a 6 in 1 package it had also Parallax, Wizball, Great Escape, and Double Take

A truly magnificent game. Try it and see !!! After all, the wise shall judge for themselves.

THE iso-adventure to own! It has a style all its own, the graphics are brilliantly drawn, the music fantastic (esp. The pre-game "worlds" music), the puzzles tricky, the map sprawling, the traps devious and the characters quirky. I could go on, but I'll just sit here and stare into space dreamily instead...

Took over my life way before Zak mckracken did, got the game with an ocean pack tapes with my original grey and brown bread box.. It was the subject of many maps, storys and dreams ( I was only 5!) I don't think we ever finished it.. I still have it on an old C-64D and it never leaves the disk box collection, same too with emulators.. I've never played batman. Its suppost to be similar.. But I don't want to.. HoH is an awesome game.. Still trying to finish it (now 20) and still have a few 500 page folders full of maps as I do with zak.. You don't see games this good anymore.. And dispite what people say.. I really liked the single tone graphics.. Simple yes.. But it made it easyer to map and remember.. I just don't feel at home with the upcoming PC remake that was more colours than a rainbow on acid.. I even liked the music GET-IT.. GOT IT!? GOOD!

Excellent game, nice idea, playable and enjoyable, but why no decent music?
and why the 2 tone speccy graphics?
but s these are the only let downs it remains brill.
just check out prince charles!!

I'm still playing it... And I still haven't completed it!

One of the greatest C64 classics of all times. Challenging puzzles and a great playability. Wonderful, even if graphically it looks too much like the original Spectrum game.