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Out in the nether regions of deepest space (the far bottom right of the Milky Way, if you really want to know) twinkles a planet named Blot. Although a pretty place, it lies deserted after its inhabitants were forced to flee from an awful fate - being called by such an unhip name as Blotians. As soon as they were able, they built a colony ship and spluttered off into space in search of a more hip planet, one called Apex or Rowlands! In the meantime they renamed themselves Fuzzy Wuzzies In Search Of Real Hipness.

Unfortunately, a collision with an asteroid led to a crash landing on Earth. The remote Pacific Isle they found themselves on had sun, sea and no name! The Fuzzy Wuzzies promptly began building a village and named the place The Hippest Place In The Known Universe. But unbeknownst to the would-be Hipsters there was a race of grumpy Demons living on the far side of the island. These Demons were enraged by all the noise made by the cheerful Fuzzies, and hated even worse the ridiculously silly island name!

So one day a sneaky Demon walked into the village and invited everyone to a disco. The Fuzzies were really excited by this - everyone brushed up their fur and attended. But after only two stodgy songs, the Demons threw a net over everyone and carted them off. The only one who escaped was Clyde Radcliffe, a tanked up little Fuzzy already throwing up in the bushes!

Clyde work up with a splitting headache and breath so bad it could scorch a tree at six paces! Nevertheless, he promptly vowed to rescue his fellow Fuzzies. His quest world take him through three Regions or Stages, each divided into two loads.

Naturally the island is packed with weird alien life-forms who hate silly names and think Clyde is nothing more than a lager lout! Clyde is initially armed with Droopy bullets and a Fiery Throat Flamer. But at the end of each level, there's a shop where a nubile young lady sells power-up weapons and information for Magic Potion Creatures. The MPCs come in three forms and are liberally sprinkled around each level. Specific combinations of MPCs buy Curly Wurly, Scatterball and other weird weapons. Fire and down calls up a strip of icons to swap between collected weapons.

Following Stage 1.1, the Lilly Lakes, Clyde moves onto Stage 1.2 where the infamous four-step waterfall, more caves and an end-of-level Demon await. Defeat him and Clyde gets to face the horrors of the Torture Screen. This is a fiendish single screen load where the Demons attempt to do away with a Fuzzy in an extremely gruesome fashion. Clyde must use brains and arcade reactions to save his pal. If he succeeds, he gets bonus MPC's, but even if Clyde fails it's onto the next Stage. This is divided into the Piranha Ponds and the Black Forest Gateau. In the former, Clyde goes scuba diving and must remember his limited air supply. The Black Forest is just as mean, woodn't you know it [Groan! - Ed] with even the trees (!) after Clyde.

Complete Stages 2.1 and 2.2 and you get to face the second Torture Screen (Zzap! Megatape 10). Then it's the hardest stages yet, featuring the Spooky Graveyard and Demon's Castle. Yet even if Clyde should somehow struggle through these murderous Stages, complete with a Flying Clyde bit, and defeat the final end-of-level monster - it's not over. The entire village has been crammed into a cage in an Acme Multiple-Fuzzy-Wuzzy-Torture-Device (Mark IV). Go for it as Clyde Radcliffe Exterminates All The Unfriendly, Repulsive, Earth-ridden Slime!

Creatures is the best original game since Turrican. The parallax scroll is particularly good, the Forest of Gateau having some excellent foreground *and* background graphics moving in parallax; to beat anything Ghouls 'N Ghosts can offer.

Colours are extensively used with a plethora of sonic accompaniments at every point in the game without overwhelming other vital effects (activate the Flame and you can hear the Flame Ready hum without losing any of the quality of the stage tune). I also like the large range of weapons, while the Stages themselves have plenty of neat little touches which demand thought.

I especially like the innocent-looking little creatures which suddenly turn nasty - and double their size! - when hit. And the three torture screens are undoubtedly the best sub-games ever! Brilliant.

Creatures must be the funniest game in ages. Is there anything to compare with the sick Torture screens?! Superbly thought out and slickly executed; without these the overall game just wouldn't be half as much fun. As for the rest of the gameplay, it might be a bit familiar, but the abundance of unique creatures, situations and surprises makes it one of the most original products in a long, long while.

I love the Flamebreath, and the large range of additional weapons are good fun too. Then there's the mass of tunes accompanying Clyde every step of the way, supporting the atmosphere achieved through excellently detailed graphics and clever colour splits (spot the creatures sporting non-standard colours!).

Creatures simply oozes quality, especially on the last Stage when Clyde enters the Demon's Castle with Fuzzies in chains and cages! On top of this, presentation is absolutely superb - the heartbreaking high score table is a classic!

Apex might have gone all cuddly and soft for their follow-up to Retrograde, but the gameplay is their best yet! It's just like playing a coin-op with overwhelmingly addictive gameplay and amazing attention to detail.

John and Steve haven't stopped at putting in the odd nice mother alien or clever effect, it's *all* crafted with the highest degree of polish. Standard villains such as my fave - the birds - rival special monsters such as the balloon pilot and two-headed fireball spitter for cuteness.

And then there's the waterfall with four-layer parallax scroll. The full spectrum of colour is used to superlative effect with sprites exhibiting more character and humour than any cartoon characters you could care to mention.

The hilarious Torture Screens rival most cartoons for action, originality and brilliant black humour. This is my pick of 1990.

Written in such a fine style, and with such a high entertainment value, Apex now rivals Visual FX as *the* C64 programmers.

Presentation 97%
Two types of maps, shop screens, 'Torture Screen complete' screen, high score table, music on/off and game complete sequence.

Graphics 96%
Great use of colour, loads of graphic variety, great animation (especially on the Torture Screens) and some subtle parallax.

Sound 95%
A different tune for each set of two stages, Torture Screen, shop screen, a great title piece and jolly end-track plus good FX.

Hookability 96%
Fairly easy beginning, with plenty of MPCs, while the urge to see later Stages and Torture Screens is irresistible.

Lastability 95%
Nine loads provide a massive challenge, with three Torture Screens and six Stages, complete with end-of-level monsters.

Overall 96%
The best excuse yet to play with cuddly toys!