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The Triphylios Of Nem plants are the lifefore of the planet Tantris, keeping the populous alive and the vast forests pure. But the rise of industry has resulted in pollution, damaging the plants and killing off the forests.

To combat the approaching doom, the Gnostics constructed the Leg, a heat probe designed to enter the most polluted of areas, absorb the heat of the Zeal smog flames and give it to the three plants. The Leg hops around the jungle seeking out the Zeal flames (eight per level). It can even hop up plants and walls, or slide along the floor for faster movement. To defend itself, the Leg can shoot the Ball which it carries, or use a smart bomb (if collected). The Ball can also be thrown out to collect heat, with the player controlling it rather than the Leg.

The heat must be stored in the Leg so it can be given to the three Triphylios plants on level three. If you have enough heat, the plants open petals to block the acid rain. You then repeat the process - only this time at night! If you don't have enough heat you've failed and must restart. For night exploration an infra-red system is available, as is a flash gun (energy levels permitting).

The stupid denizens of the forest won't help you though: spiders, frogs and flies are among the pests which attack you. Contact with them (or the acid rain dripping through to the ground) loses Leg energy. With only one life it's just as well energy can be restored by absorbing heat energy, while chalk will protect you from the rain.

Killing creatures and absorbing heat boosts the pass counter. When the boost counter hits 9,999 the Leg can teleport to the next jungle level to seek new Zeal flames in the quest to save the Triphyllos. Ecology has neer been so demanding!

My first few goes of Heat Seeker were met with total confusion, the ever-bouncing Leg never going where I wanted it to go and death proving rapid. A few calls to programmer Paul O'Malley and it all became crystal clear, revealing a deceptively simple game hiding behind a complex scenario.

While intentionally weird to look at, Heat Seeker is similar in many ways to Paul's earlier Arac (not least in graphic style).

Perhaps too similar since although it's addictive it's also somewhat dated in its gameplay and doesn't look all that special. I'd have liked a lot more change in the graphics with each new level (both in the plants and creatures).

Nevertheless the game is original, demanding enough and the element of exploration makes it worth persisting with.

Now it's finally arrived, Heat Seeker turns out to be an innovative and well presented arcade adventure. The Leg certainly looks odd - and it could do with some oil for its squeaking - but the jungle graphics are very nice.

The Venus Fly Trap which snaps up the Ball is great, as are some of the creatures such as the superbly animated frog. The sound effects further add to the atmosphere with some excellent rain splashing and frog croaks.

What's more the game itself is quite novel, I especially liked how the Ball gathers up heat, and the whole Leg/Ball set-up works very well. The basic game structure of mapping out the levels to find the flames is still a bit familiar, but implementation is novel to appeal to anyone looking for something different.

All in all, good fun which works very well on the C64 - for which the game was designed (for once!).

Presentation 75%
Neat animated loading screen Practice mode for day and night scenes, multi-load for each jungle can be a bind on tape.

Graphics 80%
Lots of colour, with good shading on the big plants and some good sprites, but there's not much variety.

Sound 76%
Unusual title music, spot FX range from average to excellent.

Hookability 68%
The control method can be frustrating to master but once you know what you're doing the game play improves markedly.

Lastability 73%
In effect, there's only three levels (the night levels are the day levels in the dark!) but you've got to learn the layout of each to succeed and the Zeal flames are definitely *not* easy to get to.

Overall 75%
A weird but slickly executed sequel to Arac, weighed down by false complexity masking the simple gameplay.