Previous Next

Logical's concept is simple. Each screen has lots of disks with four holes in them. The aim of the game is to turn all the holes black by filling each disk with four like-coloured marbles which subsequently explode.

All you control are the disks, which can be rotated by pressing fire, and - by pressing Fire with a direction - eject marbles from the selected hole down a tube. Marbles enter the screen via a horizontal tube at the top where they slide to and fro until you turn a disk to allow them into an empty hole. While they remain in the tube, a criss-cross pattern slowly builds up - if this fills the tube, a life is lost. Early on this is the only time limit, but soon enough a vertical bar appears to indicate the time limit to complete a level.

On early levels gameplay simply consists of shuffling the various colour marbles - blue, red, yellow and green - through the tubes so that all the disks have been filled. This is entertaining enough, in a basic sort of way, but such simplistic traffic control problem soon gathers plenty of new elements...

1. Colour Stopper: If it's green then only green marbles are allowed through.

2. Colour Changer: If it's green then any marbles passing through it are turned green.

3. Teleporters: Marbles are transported between paired teleporters.

4. Direction Arrows: These sit at junctions and can turn marbles so they go off in awkward directions. They can also create one-way streets.

5. Traffic Lights: If the top light is green then you'll have to create a green disk first, followed by each colour on the lights, before any other colour marbles can disappear.

6. Colour Handicap: Now disks must be filled with different-coloured marbles in the order indicated, rather than simply same-coloured marbles.

On the positive side there's an indicator showing you what colour the next marble will be, and you can have up to four marbles simultaneously bouncing about in a tube.

After playing this on the Amiga with a mouse I had my fears about joystick control, but in fact the C64's joystick system works even better and everything soon becomes very instinctive - and very addictive. Early levels are as simple as you'd expect, but you soon find the game-playing some nasty ticks on you.

The various new features added on as you progress are all very simple to understand, but can be arranged to fiendish effect, and even simple problems require fast reactions and a good sense of priorities. There can be so many different things happening all across the screen that your brain soon starts to sizzle.

My only reservation is that sometimes there's a bit more labour - i.e. repetitively sliding through balls to the furthest part of a maze - than brainwork.

Fortunately Rainbow Arts have taken care to ensure the game looks good; the graphics are simple and effective, but also attractively shaded so they're all very easy on the eye. Sonically there's a fair few tunes, generally very pacy and good, so that all in all, this is definitely one of the better puzzle games to appear.

Lugging all the marbles around can sometimes get a little laborious, but Logical is mostly good fun. It's not exactly brain-bending - once you worked out the basic problems on a screen- but good tactical planning is essential to fill the disks quickly and beat the tight time limit.

Neat presentation sets it apart from all those tile games, and with 99 levels this one will keep you playing late into the night.

Presentation 75%
Great title page. Each level is a very brief multi-load, but password system limits hassle.

Graphics 71%
Attractive, slick and effective.

Sound 78%
Choice of good tunes or some limited but nice FX.

Hookability 83%
Good control system is soon mastered and easy early levels get you hooked.

Lastability 87%
99 increasingly tough levels provide a substantial challenge.

Overall 86%
A first-class puzzler to lose your marbles with.