Big K


Punchy
By Amsoft
Amstrad CPC464

 
Published in Big K #9

Punchy

Bobby has to rescue Judy who's been locked up by Punch sixteen screens away. Bobby creaks (new shoes?) across the stage avoiding flying rotten tomatoes and custard pies coming from left and right, jumps over gaps, leaps onto flying carpets and, at the end of each screen, rocks the baby.

Once in a while a flying sausage (listen, don't tell me!) turns up and lets him short-cut to the next screen when in trouble. Helmets are given for completing a screen, within a time limit. The game gets off to a pretty poor start - who told Mr. Micro that dark blue works against a black background? - and the graphics generally are pretty feeble, apart from the stage frame which is quite pretty.

The real problem with the game is that Bobby is slow, painfully slow. There's an appalling and infuriating lag between actions getting anywhere. Of course, this could be deliberate, but who needs it?

Also who needs incorrect instructions - 'H' doesn't hold the game, 'G' doesn't start it (COPY does) and CTRL-D doesn't give you the demo mode. You ask me, this was a bit of a rush job.