C&VG


Q*Bert

Publisher: Parker Brothers
Machine: Coleco Vision Games System

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #25

Q*Bert

Cursing Q*Bert swore he'd get out of the arcades and here he is smaller than life and just as voluble on the Colecovision.

If Q*Bert's mutterings made him bad company in the arcades, his language hasn't modified much on the home screen either - but then he's still got just as much to swear about.

Coily's made the journey to the Coleco too as have all the rest of his dastardly cronies.

Q*Bert

All the action takes place on a pyramid of cubes. Q*Bert jumps around on the pyramid cubes upturned faces, starting at the top and working his way around until he has visited every cube.

He is not only capable of turning the air blue, he can also turn the surfaces a different colour so it is easy to see where he's been.

But danger lurks in the guise of bouncing balls which drop down the pyramid and will finish off Q*Bert (in a bout of bad language) should they meet. One of these, the purple Coily, does not bounce off the edge but turns into a snake at the end and sets off in pursuit of Q*Bert. It looks grim but our hero can escape by jumping off the pyramid onto a hovering cricle which lifts him back to the pyramid top. Coily, attempting to follow suit, falls to his death.

Every completed screen bring something new to the game and after four screens, level 11 offers a new challenge, this time the squares have to be jumped on twice to achieve a clearance.

There's plenty of horrors, masses of addiction and lashings of good er... clean fun for £34.95 from Parker, their first cartridge for the Coleco.

My only criticism resides in the suitability of the Coleco eight-way joystick for the game because it's all too easy to jump the wrong way and... oh *%*££ it!

Rush out and get it!