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A little late this review, because the game arrived at an awkward moment in the last schedule. Like most people Monty has two main ambitions in life, to get rich quick and to become a hero. So says the inlay. There are 40 screens to wander through, collecting large gold nuggets on the way. That makes him rich. To turn him into a hero there is a distressed damsel to rescue.

The screens are broken up into various boxed areas with the gold nuggets placed in the most difficult positions to get at. Nasties parade up and down, left and right, making timing an essential ingredient. Only once all the nuggets have been collected can Monty exit a screen.

There is a time limit set by the small clock face at the bottom right which ticks away your bonus score.

Control keys: CAPS, X/Z, C left/right, P/ENTER up/down
Joystick: Sinclair 2, AGF, Protek
Keyboard play: Responsive, well positioned, and featuring variable speed control
Use of colour: Excellent
Graphics: Very good
Sound: Continuous tune with on/off facility and spot effects
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 5
Screens: 40

At last Artic have brought out a game. It seems years since the last one, and it ' s quite good too. I think Mutant Monty is a lot like Jet Set Willy in feel, although the game itself is nothing like it. The graphics are smooth and neat, and the sound didn't drive me barmy. Controlling Monty is weird to say the least - left and right you get a slow and a fast movement depending on how you press the keys; up and down you only get a slow speed, which is a bit confusing at first.

I found Mutant Monty very playable and addictive, but almost impossible to play with a joystick.

This game seems to be on the theme of Manic Miner to a large extent, although some of the animation is quite a bit better than in Manic Miner, The game itself is very, very difficult to play; perhaps too difficult in my opinion, as it seems to take all the fun out of the game. Everything that has been put into the program is neat and tidy. Animation is quite wonderful. Some considerable effort has been put into the design of the graphics which are colourful and very detailed.

Just collecting gold seems easy at first, but it soon becomes apparent that timing and nimble fingers are required. To be able to get to some objects you need to be within one pixel of the correct position otherwise you're dead. One thing that is unique to this game is that it has variable momentum, the longer you keep a key pressed, the faster your man will travel; so the quicker you release the key, the slower you will travel. A very nice feature. Mutant Monty is quite playable but its addictive qualities are severely affected by the tact that it's so difficult to play, which is a great shame.

Mutant Monty as a game doesn't actually fit into any particular category. While the idea is similar to a platform game, there are no platforms. The graphics are good and colour is used well. There is a continuous tune which is quite good, but if it gets annoying you can turn it off. It is quite playable but it did strike me as being too hard and you are prevented from getting far into the game straight away. The demo lets you see some screens however.

Overall, not a bad game and one which should prove a challenge to the better games player.