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Mega-Lo-Mania is set before the dawn of creation and centres around four different god-like beings who are vying for supremacy on a planet that looks much like our own. In order to decide which deity claims the world, each of them must take control of a band of humanoid entities and use them to destroy the rival bands.

You are cast in the role as one of these gods and your task is to do everything in your power to stake your claim to the world. It's your job to take your troupe of 100 people and conquer a total of 27 islands, spread over a total of nine different epochs (or eras).

To claim each island, you have to build up the technology of your people, allow them to reproduce and move them to new homes on the island. Technology revolves around defending and maintaining your homes along with developing weapons used to take out the opposition. As the tech-level of your people increases, so does the sophistication of your designs. Indeed, later levels require laboratories, mines and factories to bring your technical innovations to the people!

The Mega-Lo-Mania events are watched by strange pan-dimensional beings. Will you entertain them with your cunning strategies and global thinking - or will you end up on a celestial version of You've Been Framed?

A very original game, reminiscent of Populous. It was first released on the Amiga.

Make your people prosper and take over the whole world!

Each of the buildings on the main screen serve a particular function, be it to house the peopple, create new weapons, mine the natural reserves or produce your weapons. As your people progress through the ages, the architecture of the buildings change. When you start the game, your men erect stone age-style constructions. Expect to see space age buildings on the last level!

Sound: You can turn the tunes, effects and speech on and off. Sample every sound in the game in the sound test area.

Load/Save: Enter a password to return to a previous level.

Help On/Off: Help text can be toggled on or off. The help text lets you get a hang of the game.

Auto Slow On/Off: Whenever you are attacked, the passage of time slows down... if you want.

Select the army now and you're able to conscript your people into the armed forces. In this section of the game, you also allocate the many weapons you've created. Once your army is ready to move, you select its destination.

Your troops patrol the chosen sector and attack any enemy forces or buildings they come across.

There are three islands to each epoch (or level), each offering different terrain and natural resources. You are allowed to choose where you want your first settlement to go. A good choice here is vital to your cause. Should you choose a place where raw materials are abundant, your designers come up with a far better range of weapons. A large scope of materials allows them to create more efficient designs as well.

The first job in the game is to choose your deity. A very pretty screen gives you the info on how each would-be deity operates. Although irrelevant for the being your wish to participate as (after all, you have your own tactics), they give you a valuable insight into the sorts of strategy your opposition might use.

Mega-Lo-Mania is choc-a-bloc with sampled speech! In fact, there are a total of 34 different sayings contained in the 8-meg cartridge. These range from your lab boys announcing that their designs are ready, to the victory cry of your army commander ("We've won!"). Each deity also has a few lines to say (one of them sounds about as hard as John Inman!)

If you think that you aren't in a very strong position, you might try to seek an alliance with one of the other gods attempting to gain control of the current island. However, chances are that they'll turn you down unless they're on their last legs. Sometimes though, one of the others might come to you with plans for an alliance!

Often, designing and manufacturing weapons or buildings is a very time-consuming business. Therefore, the time-altering icon (represented by a man walking or running) really comes in handy. You find yourself using this icon quite often in the game,be it to speed up reproduction of your race, or just to get battles over with a lot quicker.

A vast range of weapons are available for use in Mega-Lo-Mania, depending on how advanced your followers are. To begin with, the best weapons are the basic rock and spear, or maybe the odd pike if you're lucky.

This moves on to the likes of bows and arrows, crossbows, catapults and cannons. By the time the tech-level reaches the nineteenth century, you're able to develop flying machines like biplanes or even jet-fighters! In later levels, warfare is conducted a lot quicker. This is because of the advent of nuclear weapons which desolate entire areas in a matter of seconds.

As you can see, each main building has a number of turrets that house your men. The forms of defence are many and varied, mostly dependent on the tech-level of your people. There are the likes of cauldrons of oil, muskets, machine guns, bazookas and finally anti-nuke nukes!

Mega-Lo-Mania is quite similar to Populous - but it's vastly superior. I found the lack of variety in Populous a real put-off, but this doesn't apply to this game because of the vast amount of different weapons to create and use.

It's a great laugh to see legions of enemy rock-throwers get wipedout by a massive catapult-assault! Or perhaps they've sent bowmen at you and you've just developed a massive army of biplanes and twentieth century foot soldiers... wipe-out!

The emphasis on this game is firmly on strategy, but only as a means to witness some brilliant fight scenes!

The challenge this game presents is huge. I've got to the fifth epoch (out of nine), but this level is just so rock-hard I wonder if I'll ever get off it. I'll certainly spend plenty of time finding out. I cannot stress how totally excellent this game is. It's got everything: humour (the speech is ace), action, strategy and (believe it or not) originality! An essential buy.

Apart from Populous, pure strategy games for the Megadrive are a rare thing indeed, making Mega-Lo-Mania interesting for that fact alone.

However, the excellence of Mega-Lo-Mania puts the aging Populous in the shade. Although the two games look slightly similar, there is so much more to do in Mega-Lo-Mania. You have much more freedom to move people, attack enemies, design weapons and defend your buildings. And, unlike Populous, the people respond to your commands almost immediately.

Two other great strategic ideas; alliances and saving men for succeeding epochs; make the game even more involved. Whoever working out all the complex relations of mining, designing and producing must have a Tefal-sized head!

But the game is still easy to get into in spite of its subtleties. The presentation complements everything, with great graphics and absolutely tons of brilliant (and funny) samples. "Want to be in my team?" Yes I do! Mega-Lo-Mania is a Megadrive classic.

Presentation 97%
P. Brilliant. A vast range of options, a help system and a great look to the game itself.

Graphics 86%
P. Great definition on the sprites and backdrops, depicting the action perfectly.

Sound 94%
P. A vast amount of speech, plus decent effects and suitably atmospheric music.

Playability 94%
P. The help system makes the game easy to get into and once you're in, you're addicted!

Lastability 93%
P. Nine levels to conquer, and the last few are large and exceptionally tough!

Overall 94%
Mega-Lo-Mania is the definitive Megadrive strategy game. It's fun as well as complex, and has tons of playability. You can be assured of plenty of game for your money with this one.