Computer Gamer


Magic Mushrooms

Publisher: Acornsoft
Machine: Acorn Electron

 
Published in Computer Gamer #5

Magic Mushrooms

This is a game with a difference. Not satisfied with the normal run-of-the-mill ladders and ramps type of game, Acornsoft have succeeded in producing a game that can hold on to its value long after screens are completed - this is because it has a built-in editor to totally change the play of the game.

There are nine screens pre-defined of progressive difficulty with all the usual twists and turns that you would expect. Obstacles to get in your way include slides, ice, trampolines, monsters and escalators. Most of the built-in screens show a lot of thought in their construction and are quite challenging despite the simplicity of the graphics.

The theme of the game is to guide Murphy through the screens collecting his mushrooms. The mushrooms appear in each room in random positions each time you play the game, so you have to be adept at going around the screen in a number of different ways. Points are scored for picking the mushrooms and for completing a screen within the time limit.

Magic Mushrooms

The editor is very good with a titling option to name each room and the sixteen different elements stretched across the top of the screen. You edit or create the screen by selecting which of the sixteen blocks that you want and then moving around with the cursor keys.

This extra feature makes a good, but straightforward, game excellent and in a class of its own. There is the opportunity to save and load screens, so you can swap or sell them. The copious documentation that guides you through the process of screen generation is, as usual, excellent. This documentation puts lesser games and companies to shame as does all of Acornsoft's manuals, etc.

Definitely one of the better platform games.