Lively but late

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Fat Man Sam is a Super Silver release from Firebird Software, which means that it isn't as cheap as most of their stuff but should be much better.

Taking the now familiar format of Manic Miner, you guide Fat Sam around 40 screens collecting objects as they appear.

The screens themselves consist mainly of platforms and creatures floating to and fro. You jump from platform to platform, collecting your objects.

Killer weed, jagged rocks and most things that move are bad news and are to be avoided. All the graphics are well defined and the animation is most impressive.

Each screen has a certain feature that makes it unique. One for example, has two pairs of giant crushers that move up and down in sequence. You need to watch these for ages before you can figure out when to jump.

You have six lives, shown as little men who dance merrily at the top of the screen while you struggle with your current life.

Another feature is that you can start in any of the first 10 screens, which stops you getting bored if you are stuck on an early screen.

The sound can be turned off and is generally satisfactory and the music that plays during loading is a brilliant version of Roll Out The Barrel that makes loading a pleasure!

The three control keys can be redefined or swapped for a joystick.

I think this is a good version of the classic game, but a little late to impress people all that much.

Phil Tudor