C&VG


Bugsy

Publisher: CRL
Machine: Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #63

Bugsy

You wanna control a cute little blue rabbit with a machine gun? Good. If you don't, then you're gonna miss out on a lotta fun.

The rabbit in question is Bugsy - what an original name for a rabbit. He's blue, he's three feet tall, and he lives in Chicago in 1922. Bugsy's aim in life (apart from breeding and that) is to become Public Enemy No 1.

Your job is to advise Bugsy in his struggle against the mobsters, and ultimately make him the Top Dog, sorry. Rabbit! in Chicago - in place of that "fat wimp" Capone. To do this you're going to have to be ruthless, and in some cases, downright evil.

Bugsy

It all begins outside a bar. If you step inside, you are, or rather Bugsy is, thrown into a fight with some hoods. If you succeed in beating them, you get to meet Louis and Muscles, who are later to become the backbone of Bugsy's very own mob.

To enable you to identify with 1922 Chicago, the game features a menu-driven conversation system. If you type TALK TO (Character name) the computer offers nine options ranging from GREET to THREATEN, and your choice often has humorous repercussions.

For example, if you threaten the paper boy, the computer shows the conversation in the form of: I say 'Hey kid, I don't like da looka ya face’ and the newsboy says: 'And ya like da looka yer own? Wit taste like dat you just handed me a compliment!’

By setting up protection rackets, you soon set enough cash to hire Louis and Muscles, and then you've got to make a business for yourself. Here ends Part One of the game, and it will not trouble experienced adventurers.

Part Two, The Crimelord. on the reverse of the tape, is a bit more difficult. Here you need to obtain $15,000 for a bullet-proof Cadillac, and the characters you meet can be extremely awkward, especially Police Chief Inspector Moron.

The game was written with The Quill, so has limitations with vocabulary. However, by experimenting with words you'll soon get to know what it accepts, and in any case, the most important input is by use of the conversation menu.

Bugsy's 70 or so locations, each have a sepia-toned graphic to go with them. These are drawn very quickly, although they do tend to be rather repetitious.

In Part One your score is measured by how much cash you've got, but in the second part, it is your position in the Top Ten Public Enemy chart that counts.

The only help you are going to get is from the inlay card, as no HELP feature is provided, and EXAMINE is only rarely helpful. If you try to examine a room, you are told: "See one, ya seen 'em all."

As the inlay says: "Ya wanna stay healthy, ya buy it!"