Previous Next

Spectrum gamers that enjoy categorising games will have fun with this latest offering from Gremlin.

Is it a shoot-'em-up, or a platform game or perhaps an arcade adventure? Or is it a completely new style of game combining the action of all three? Either way, it's going to be big.

The plot revolves around our attempts as Randolph the hero to rescue your beloved maiden from the evil clutches of the evil Spegbott the Terrible.

Wearing your Omnibot Mark IV all-purpose attack suit, complete with laser-assisted rifle you rush to answer an inter-dimensional distress signal and arrive in the S.S. Rustbucket. However, instead of finding your Princess Amelia you're greeted by berserk defence droids that swamp you and drain your life energy.

Luckily, you've brought a couple of spare lives with you in case you lose all 999 of your energy points.

These defence droids come in many shapes and sizes and range froom high flying ghosts to slithering blobs of goo.

To add to your problems there's also deadly pools of bubbling lava and platform traps that you can leap into but can't jump, walk or blast your way out.

The game begins inside the crashed Rustbucket and your first job is to find the way out onto the planet then search a jungle until you find Spegbott's castle and eventually your Princess. Ahead of you lies 20 levels of vertically scrolling screens that form the maze of ladders, platforms and hazards of the Rustbucket and the planet outside.

All is not lost as help is at hand in the objects that you can find around the ship, although you will have to fight for them.

Safe passes and securo keys open and unlock the exit doors that lead from one level to another until eventually you find the exit pass to let you out of the ship. You may also find bombs that destroy a screnful of critters while replenishing your energy as well as Confusers to stun them and the mysterious Shorteners and Flash Bangers.

Once you reach the castle and find the dungeon, you will have to defeat the almost indestructable Henchodroid. You'll probably achieve this through objects that you've found but first you will have to perform a cosmic juggling act as you can only carry one object at a time!

Despite this restriction you'll soon be bounding through the levels.

Unfortunately, you'll have to do the full twenty levels in one sitting as there isn't a save option or even a pause button. Leave the game for a few minutes and Randolph will wave to attract your attention and then spin around losing energy at an alarming rate.

A superb mixture of all that's best in arcade adventures, platform games and shoot-'em-ups combined to signal monster hit.