Previous Next

The idea behind Monty Mole can hardly be described as original, but this does not mean the game lacks in addictiveness! The game is based around the character Monty Mole, who, having to face a long and cold winter, must venture deep down into his local coal mine in search of coal to keep him going for the winter.

But as always, this is not as easy as it sounds! While he is in the deep dark recesses of the mine, in order to collect the pieces of coal scattered all over, he must dodge robots that move in regular patterns (similar in style of Jet Set Willy and Manic Willy fans - falling from great heights. Not forgetting the dreaded moving platforms that can disappear from under your feet. Sounds difficult? Well, it is!

In my opinion, the game is a cross between Jet Set Willy, Manic Miner, Fred and The Alchemist. The fact that Monty has to climb ropes in order to travel to the different screens, must have been influenced by Fred. The screens are very much like those of the Miner Willy games and The Alchemist.

All the above action is created in excellent, smooth, cartoon-quality graphics. When the game has loaded, the computer presents you with a menu asking you if you want to use keyboard/Kempston/Sinclair joystick. On the first screen of the game, you have to jump across a broken bridge and then avoid acorns dropped on you from a less-then-friendly squirrel sitting in a nearby tree. Having survived all this, you have to steal a coal bucket left outside a house. After stealing the bucket, an angry miner will come running out after you, while you have to dodge the acorns and jump across the bridge again!

From then on, we say goodbye to the angry coalminer and head off to the actual mine where all the action takes place.

Your measly three lives will have you banging your head against the wall with frustration. Every time you los one of these lives, you will see poor Monty collapsing, and an angel floating upwards on little wings!

Instead of collecting all the items on one screen, in Monty Mole you have to collect all the items from one series of screens to get into the next. Stopping you from getting onto the next series of screens is a brick wall that will magically disappear when you have collected all the items!

There is not much sound during the game - just as well too, the game is annoying enough! One criticism of the game being that there are other items which you can collect and in turn these enable you to kill some robots, but allow you to get killed by collecting other items. Not much information is given about these items, but this does not subtract much from the enjoyment of the game. Another criticism is that the game is slightly too hard, making it a bit annoying to play.

It is a game that requires practice to become good at, and I believe it has the edge over Jet Set Willy, but will not rank as high in the charts because, at the time Jet Set Willy was released, the standard of games then was lower than it is now, so Monty Mole has a harder struggle to the top.

The game supports both Kempston and Sinclair joysticks. All in all, I think Gremlin Graphics have a winner on their hands.