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A staggeringly addictive puzzle-solving journey through over 300 locations in the Blacktooth Empire

Head and Heels are two spies from the planet Freedom, travelling about on each other's shoulders and using their individual assets and capabilities to right wrongs and solve mysteries.

Head is the more experienced of the pair, having cut his teeth in the famous Calypso Daisy Massacre affair (he was the secret agent who caused a scandal by being found in the Princess' private quarters). Heels is a comparative newcomer to the force, joining after his retirement from the Universal Olympic Upside-Down Tightrope Walking Team. Head can jump great heights and turn in mid air, while Heels is a flyer on the ground but not so good a jumper.

And what a cracker of a case the boys have this time! They've been set the task of liberating the enslaved planets of the Blacktooth Empire by rescuing five stolen crowns and returning them to Freedom.

But wait a minute - you need to know the background to the Blacktooth Empire. This tyrannical dynasty is a group of five planets; Safari, Penitentiary, Egyptus, Bookworld and Blacktooth itself... but more about these later. The evil empire is ruled by a cruel despot who has now set his colonial sights on Freedom.

Knowing that attack is the best from of defence, the Elder Freedomites decided to send in a team to cause unrest among the enslaved planets, and hopefully cause the destruction of the entire empire. The only feasible way to accomplish this task is to find the five hidden crowns which are scattered about the empire, and mobilising the downtrodden populations behind them.

Having just won Freedom's 'Spy Team Of The Year' contest for the 37th year running, Head and Heels were chosen to travel to Blacktooth and carry out this mission.

However this plan went wrong and the pals were captured by the wicked ruler's minions. They're now imprisoned in separate cells, divided by an unscalable wall. For some strange reason, there's a teleport pad in each cell so that the pair can begin their escape attempt - but can they get back together and complete their mission?

Help comes in the unlikely form of stuffed white bunny rabbits, who bestow special favours on our two heroes to temporarily enhance their powers. The rabbits come in four basic varieties: extra life bunnies, invulnerability bunnies, jump higher bunnies and go faster bunnies. If the pair are connected when a rabbit is encountered, they are both credited with the extra power - however, if Heels picks up a go faster bunny or Head picks up a jump bunny the effects are wasted.

Reincarnation Fish are another odd ally. Each them and they acquire your personality and traits, so that when a game finishes it can be restarted from the point where the fish was consumed. Just one thing though, before setting down for a meal make sure that the fish is alive - dead fish are highly poisonous.

The Evil Emperor's henchmen come in a variety of guises. Jars of poisonous Marmite abound, as do lethally mobile police bollards and strange propeller-headed vermin. Stranger still are the Daleks which roam the floors, disguised as Elephants, Chimpanzees, Fruit Machines and even Prince Charles - depending on which world they inhabit. The deadliest threat comes in the form of vicious homing droids who hover in for the kill at great speed.

Unlike 007, Head and Heels have no licence to kill. Instead Head collects doughnuts which he fires at his opponents through a deadly air-horn. The stunned creature then has to spend the next few minutes licking sticky dough from his face, and can be avoided at a leisurely pace. Supplies of doughnuts are found in trays of six, scattered around the five worlds.

Heels always wanted a doughnut horn as well, but Head is the senior member of the team and he doesn't trust him with weapons - after all, you can't have anybody running around shooting doughnuts all over the place. Poor old Heels has to make do with being the bag man, an unglamorous but important job. Because he carries the bag, Heels is the only one who can pick up and carry the items necessary for solving a number of puzzles. Unfortunately the bag has a hole in it and cannot carry objects from room to room.

Sleeping Hush Puppies lie about the landscape forming bridges and platforms (like Head and Heels, these are natives of Freedom). Long ago these passive canine footrests developed an intense hatred of Head's ancestors and now they disappear whenever Head enters the room. Nobody knows where they go, but they refuse to return until Head is well out of sight - a situation which causes more than its fair share of problems.

Exploring a castle may appear to be an easy task, but in this case all is certainly not what it seems. Platforms disappear at awkward moments, targets appear to be tantalisingly out of reach, seemingly innocuous floors are fatal to the touch and innocent-looking creatures turn nasty at the drop of a hat! Therefore, most of the 300-odd rooms present another puzzle to be solved before progress can be resumed.

The boys travel from room to room and from planet to planet by means of the legendary Blacktooth teleport system. This is a somewhat deceptive mode of transport however, as some of the teleporters work in a single direction only - often transporting the user back by many roosm.

If all of this action seems a little too much to begin with, the quest can be temporarily forgotten, and an escape to Freedom attempted instead. Don't be fooled into believing that this task is an easy one though - remember that Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

Oh yes, and now for the planets...

1. Egyptus A travelling space crew once returned to Blacktooth carrying tales of a primitive planet whose inhabitants wrapped corpses in cloth and buried them in pyramids. The Emperor liked this idea, and rebuilt the capital city of one of the planets to remind him of it.

2. Safari Covered in dense vegetation and filled with traps. Native Daleks resemble Monkeys and Elephants.

3. Book World Imagine a planet which consists entirely of one great library! What's more, all of its books are Western Novels. Freaky, eh?

4. Penientiary Like all dictatorships, the Blacktooth empire needs masses of prison space to store its dissidents. The Emperor has solved this problem quite neatly by turning an entire planet into a concentration camp.

5. Blacktooth Last but not least comes the Emperor's home planet. Administrative centre to the empire and massive teleport terminal, it has all the best TV channels. This forbidding planet is also home to the Emperor's guardian, a deceptively mean character who provides what is probably the game's toughest obstacle.

Well it's finally arrived: the first Gold Medal of the year, and my first as a Zzap! reviewer - and it's a good 'un! The programmers have achieved a considerable coup for Ocean in managing to convert what is considered to be *the* arcade adventure on the Spectrum to the C64 with almost no loss of speed, clarity or playability.

The graphics are extremely pretty, and the feeling of actually existing in three-dimensions within the machine is overwhelming. As for the game itself, it's very, very addictive and has kept certain members of the team if not quiet, then at least out of my way for several days now.

The only possible fault I can find is the lack of a game save option, which is partially redeemed by the ability to begin from the last 'reincarnation fish' encountered in the previous game.

If you like logic puzzles and have a couple of months to spare, you'll go head over heels over Head Over Heels. Groan.

Let me start by saying that this is one of the finest computer games that I've ever seen. It's infuriatingly playable, and at the risk of abusing a very old cliche... it provides hours and hours of fun.

The series of mind-taxing puzzles combined with the necessity for pixel-perfect positioning means that no two games are ever totally alike, and the fact that there is more than one way to solve most puzzles adds greatly to the playability.

The programmers have also succeeded in a purely visual way. The two main chracters have a beautiful cartoon-like quality, and even develop distinct personalities (for the record, Heels is my favourite).

From a technical viewpoint, the slick use of the 3D format pushes back the frontiers of programming on the C64 - and only goes to show what could have been achieved in a number of other programs.

Head Over Heels is possibly *the* game of 1987, get your hands on a copy as quickly as possible.

From the very first go this had me hooked... and a fortnight later I'm still itching to get back ot it. Head Over Heels is quite simply the finest C64 program so far this year.

The graphics are outstanding and portray a solid and totally believable alien environment. Head and Heels themselves are superb characters - the sort that would make a successful cartoon series. The five surreal alien planets offer plenty of surprises and are filled with puzzles, some of which seem illogical or completely impossible to solve.

However, the answer is always staring at you in the face, and usually dawns hours after you've switched off the computer! The gameplay is incredibly rewarding, and finally getting a crown and managing to escape is a great feeling. Superb stuff - buy it!

Presentation 98%
Excellent. A multitude of useful user-friendly options, superbly documented with the inclusion of an amusing scenario and informative instructions.

Graphics 98%
Highly detailed and varied landscapes, populated by characters that are both amusing and believable.

Sound 79%
Competent title tune, with a multitude of atmospheric jingles and spot effects.

Hookability 96%
Beautifully designed with the player in mind, requiring a huge degree of dexterity, both mental and physical.

Lastability 98%
Over 200 rooms to explore and many rewarding problems to solve.

Overall 98%
An all time classic - not to be missed for any reason.