Sinclair User


Brainache

Author: Graham Taylor
Publisher: Codemasters
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Sinclair User #62

Brainache

Things begin badly with the name of this one - Brainache.

It'll drive you crazeee.

Supposing I called a game Extremly Irritating. Would you buy it? Plotwise this one is firmly in the realms of whacky. That means it's jokey but never actually amuses. Here goes.

Brainache

Brainache is an extremely small sprite which you must guide up and down the rocky pathways that lead deep into an alien mine. The ultimate objective is a fabled Anatese diamond, the preliminary objective is for Breinache to retrieve his missing mining equipment - four items in all.

All four must be returned to the ship, the only problem is that only one object can be carried at a time. Um, only one object except for useful things. Like the ladder. And the pickaxe. Actually there are quite a lot of things you can carry.

That's the game. Up and down the landscape making giant conceptual leaps like 'maybe the pickaxe is for use in the caves' or 'perhaps I should pick up this thermos flask and I think I should shoot these creatures that keep killing me'.

The graphics it should be said are odd. The background is a fairly detailed landscape that moves up and down in a none too slick way as you climb.

Movement is only you and the creatures and since everybody is tiny and everybody changes colour continuously whilst moving over the multi-coloured landscape it's frequently impossible to tell what on earth is going on. Pretty soon you'll be wondering why you bothered in the first place.

Overall Summary

Dull and unoriginal arcade game of a style that everyone thought was gone forever. Not worth it even on budget.

Graham Taylor

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