Crash


Labyrinthion

Author:
Publisher: Budgie
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Crash #31

Labyrinthion

Labyrinthion features a magic scroll, a labyrinth (well that's a shocker), a hero, several baddies and a scenario that runs as follows:

Trapped within a dusty labyrinth you, as the hero of this fair tale, must escape with your life by avoiding the far from gentle touch of the cave's inhabitants. Trouble free travel within the subterranean passages is heavily restricted by doors that link the five sectors of the maze and require four objects to be in your possession before access is allowed. A quartet of compasses, maps or water bottles acts as a key to the doors between sectors, so your first main task is to hunt for these objects.

Lots of roaming evil beings troll from cave to cave in search of tasty morsels, and as far as they're concerned you are a very tasty morsel indeed. The action is viewed from above, as in Wizard's Lair, to which the game bears more than a passing resemblance. Swarming baddies constantly home in on you, sapping energy all the while. Their energy-sapping activities can be curtailed with a good old fashioned blast with one of the two weapons supplied.

Labyrinthion

Nine pieces of magic scroll must be neatly placed in your knapsack before they will obligingly point in the direction of the exit.

Comments

Control keys: K up, M down, Z left, X right, L fire, P pick up, V shield, S select, F change weapon, 5 pause
Joystick: none
Keyboard play: no problems
Use of colour: bright and cheerful
Graphics: a bit flickery
Sound: minimal - just a few effects really
Skill levels: one
Screens: 256

Comment 1

'Graphically, this is Wizard's Lair, with the exception of Pothole Pete, and the flickering characters found in the labyrinth. Playability-wise, it's totally different: Wizard's Lair was great fun! The instructions are pretty good but aren't immediately readable. I couldn't find enough to do to make it challenging, and therefore I got bored quickly. General enjoyment, too, wanes after about ten minutes. The sound is well below par, and the tune on the Intro screen is awful. Okay, okay, it's really cheap, but give me Spellbound any day. Take my advice and spend your money elsewhere'

Comment 2

'This game resembles Wizard's Lair and looks almost the same but with different monsters and a different man. Overall, I found the game fast and lots of fun to play. The graphics are well drawn and detailed, especially around the screen edges. Colour is well used and the sound is good and clear, with firing and getting killed noises. As more and more cheapo games come on the market, this is one of the better ones- I'd recommend it.'

Comment 3

'After a spate of Atic Atac-ish type games before last Christmas the craze started to die down, but of course there is always the budget market. Budgie have published a relatively good product but it suffers from very bad collision detection. The colour is well used with lots around the outside and all moving characters of the same colour. I felt that the play area should have been increased in size by quite a bit as it only occupies about one third of the screen. The sound is very basic, just a few spot effects and a very bland tune to open with. I didn't much like the idea of the lives being eaten away with no gauge or indication of losing the hues. I don't think this will appeal to all of the adventure freaks but it is very simple and the price suits it right.'

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