Previous Next

It's not often that I like the products of French software houses; they seem to be keen on complex, baffling ideas which don't add up to much in the way of gameplay.

But light Corridor is the spiffiest, zippiest bit of coding ever to appear from our European cousins, and if you miss it you be doing your brain an irreparable injury.

Imagine a cross between Breakout, Room 10 and Psychedelia - only in 3-D and you'll begin to get an inkling of what The Light Corridor is about. The basic idea is simple - always a virtue - but it's carried through with such imagination and technical skill that the mouth dribbles to think of it.

You have to steer a bouncing boll through maze using a paddle. Easy, yes? But the maze is in 3-D, the paddle's transparent and the tunnels are fun of unexpected hazards and obstacles.

Although each level is monochrome the graphics are incredibly fast-moving. As the 3-D tunnel unwinds ahead of you, you'll be amazed that the ball, your paddle and the various objects which appear move with such smoothness and speed. Crikey!

Your paddle can be positioned anywhere on the screen before you launch the ball, which shoots into the distance and disappears, continuing until it hits an obstacle and bounces back. You then have to move the paddle to bounce the ball back up the corridor, following it along with the paddle by holding down the fire button and pushing up. If you miss the ball on the rebound you get a sampled cry of despair and the instruction to get ready to launch the next ball.

The tunnels are full of obstacles such as panels which protrude halfway across from the side or the floors, moving panels which block the path way: and icons which disappear when you pass through them.

Some of the icons give you useful new features such as dual bats and sticky bats, bonus balls (oo-er) and even a homing bat! Others icons are heavy bummers though; the minus icons reduce the size of your paddle and one (you find out!) will loose you life.

There's a speed up option which allows you to shoot through the corridors at breakneck speed, and 50 stages each with a code number which you can use when restarting to put you straight to any level you have reached before. After every four levels there's a special challenge, such as a target square which has to be hit before you can proceed further.

The music is fantabulously rockacious, and there's even a course designer option allowing you to design your own corridors placing obstacles anywhere you want and saving the new layout for later use.

The overall effect is a stunning bit of coding which should keep you stuck to your Spectrum as tightly as Madonna is to her underwear.

Label: Infogrames Memory: 48K/128K Price: £10.99 Tape, £15.99 Disk Program By: New Frontier Author: Vincent Bourieux Release: Out Now Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

It's psychdelic! It's technotronic! It's surrealistic! And it's fantabulous! Light Corridor will take you to places you never knew existed! Magnifiqu!