BILLED as "the bugs bite back", the Work Force Doom Bugs for the 16K Spectrum promises you a busy time. The player takes the role of a tarantula trapped inside a grubber's lair. The way out is via a trapdoor at the centre of the screen and you must try to bore your way through it with the help of a nibble of honey to renew your strength at each attempt.
Meanwhile, the grubber are reproducing at an alarming rate. When two eggs meet, a green bubbergrubber is hatched and if two green bubbergrubbers meet, they form a red grubber which will destroy you if you collide with it.
What with locating the centre of the trapdoor, nipping back for some honey, and trying to destroy eggs and grubber: before they team up to destroy you, escaping is an exacting task. The placing of the keys, which you cannot re-define, does not make things easier.
The graphics and sound are suitably frenetic and the action is fast enough to satisfy the most practised of arcade addicts. You receive points for eating grubs and a bonus for fighting through to the next level where the scene is a maze and the action even hotter than before.
Doom Bugs can be obtained from Work Force, 140 Wilsden Avenue, Luton, Beds. It costs £5.50.
10th December 1983
