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I love nothing better than a little game dev competition, it gets the creative bunch out of the woodwork, but for many of the Amstrad CPC #RetroDev contest it forms part of the university curriculum.

From past experiences I have found that these competitions are a hub of insane creativity in such a short timespan.

Does Ludic: Break The Loop fall into this category? I'm even more curious than the proverbial cat because I've been more a Speccy/Commodore gamer and it's great to explore and discover what other retro gaming communities are doing.

The University of Alicante holds an annual competition for the Amstrad and, as per usual, many excellent coders came rising to the challenge. Ludic was one of the many entrants and it performed very well - in fact, it came in second out of 35 entrants. A very high honour. This was against its own peers within the Amstrad community. Does the game cut it in an annual publication that's played many games on many other systems? I am keen to play to find out just how good it may be.

The AI has taken over, or is about to. Professor Ludic has quickly typed up some code on his Amstrad to try and thwart this malevolent force. Sadly, the AI's gone all "Tron-like" on the poor professor and he's gotten 'transportified' (yes, I know that's a made up word) into the cyber realm. Now, in a battle of wits, the professor must outwit his digital opponent in a twisted cyber battle of Sokoban. Viewed in a top down perspective, our protagonist must collect up the Qubits and find a path to the exit.

This is easier said than done. Each of the 16 levels provide a unique challenge where the player must move the professor around in a sequential and logical fashion. He will only stop when colliding with an object and it is up to the player to fashion out the correct path. Some objects will vaporise our hero, some will bounce him back in the opposite direction and others will stop him in his tracks but disintegrate upon collision.

This makes for a taxing puzzle game where the solution isn't clearly obvious from the outset. Later levels feature a spooky doppelganger professor, which the player can also control. This creates a more taxing symbiotic relationship with the two binary partners in order to suss out the correct path to the exit (I agree. Later levels are strange and very complex! - Ed). Luckily, there are level codes provided for the weary traveller; these can be used on the title screen in order to skip levels that have already been completed.

The whole presentation oozes high end quality. Rather than the game being simply level by level with no other content, there is an excellent dialogue and banter between the professor and AI. This is done in comic book style form, with their heads appearing and the chat text popping up beside them. This gives a living, breathing feel to the game and fattens it out greatly. The graphics, in their varying monochromatic hues, are lush. They are small and petite, but exceptional. The aforementioned sprites for the avatars of the characters when chatting really add a level of charm seldom seen in 8-bit games. The music is like an earworm and remains in the player's head, long after playing the game.

What stands out most though is the variety in each of the levels. None of them are repetitive and bring a completely new challenge for the player as they progress. There may be only sixteen levels, but my goodness, they are taxing and it will take the average person many sittings to complete this. The game also comes with a prequel accompanying comic - it's a must read, excellently presented again so read this first!

Although it has a kind of longevity, it is over before you know it and that's the puzzles all solved. I'd have liked larger playfields as most of them were very small (I found them hard to see at times too - Ed). Imagine how long it would have taken to complete a level that was full screen!!! Some of the English translations are a bit ropey, but I'm not complaining about that, I remember how bad I was at my O Levels in languages.

Ludic: Break The Loop is one of the best presented games I have seen in a very long time. Graphically, it is limited to the CPC's four colour mode 1 resolution but the use of colour is so visually impressive. Music is outstanding, a must listen to for any retro gaming freaks.

It goes to show that a little more polish can make a run-of-the-mill tried and tested game format seem a lot more exceptional. Hats off to the developers Naad, Brando and Lex of Osmobit Games for their insane creativity in such a short time frame to develop such a highly presented and very playable Amstrad CPC game.