C&VG
1st June 1988Gutz
This game surprised me. I find the whole area of rummaging around inside a body quite vomit-inducing. Still, I thought, I'll try anything once and, wouldn't you know it, I found myself enjoying it.
I don't know if I believe the story that the game was inspired by graphic artist Andy Rixon's visit to his local hospital for a nasty internal examination - if he's got insides like this then it's surprising they let him out again, that's all I can say! He went away and chatted to his mates at Special FX, the people behind this offering, and persuaded them to spill their "gutz", if you'll pardon the pun.
Now if you are sitting comfortably we'll take a look at the plot. While on a mission to discover what is causing that huge blip on Earth's early warning detection systems, you come across a ten trillion tonne mega-being from another universe, who eats you alive! It's not that he's particularly hostile or anything, but the in-flight food hasn't been up to scratch. How would you like to travel millions of light years across space with only a very small packet of dry-roasted peanuts to keep you going?
Your job is to escape from the maze of arteries, intestines and tubes and get back to Earth in time to convince them to nip out for a mega-party bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken before their hungry guests arrive and start consuming all the designer furniture.
You have to destroy the alien's major internal organs. One by one, you have to knock out the lungs, heart and brain. All these horrible wobbly things are hidden within a 3D scrolling maze of tubes and ducts. And each organ is protected by a shield which can only be destroyed by assembling a special weapon.
Oddly enough, the alien has the bits for this weapon scattered about its insides. You can also find other useful things inside this space monster - things that will help you survive your mission; things like a map of the monster's innards, energy crystals, protective helmets, keys to super-weapon rooms and useful weapon-holds. More about these items later. When you first load up the game, it's essential to race around and find the box which contains the map. Without this you're lost, but before you go that it's a good idea to find a weapon-hold - a sort of round blob on the wall - and open it to get ammo for your space-blaster. Once you've got these two items, you're ready to play the game for real.
You'll find yourself in a maze packed full of 'orrible creatures, the mega-being's defence systems, all intent on wiping you out. If you've got the map, keep referring to it. Nothing can touch you while you are looking at the map, but it only stays on screen for three minutes at a time. Spot the location of the goodies you're after, like helmets, crystals, bits of weapon and so on, and then make a dash for them.
The map screen also shows you the best type of ammo for your weapon to deal with most of the nasties you'll encounter on that particular level. You get this ammo from the weapon holds. But each hold has a different sort - so make sure you get the right one for the job.
There are loads of these holds scattered about, so it's a matter of trial and error until you get the right one. It's a good idea to do this because you can build up a big score and win extra lives at the same time. You get an additional life for ever 10,000 points. And you get to use the nifty hi-score chart at the end of the game. Watch out for the nice "mutating" letters and numbers!
The graphics are nice and big, animation is pretty good, music and sound effects likewise. Gameplay? Well, it's all good, clean fun! Like I said, despite my initial reservations, I found myself reluctantly liking the game, and eventually getting hooked on the thing.