Home Computing Weekly


Roland In Space

Author: P.N.G.
Publisher: Amsoft
Machine: Amstrad CPC464

 
Published in Home Computing Weekly #110

That adventurous Amstrad technical manager, Roland, is on the move again. Now he's piloting round the universe in his Mark II telephone box Tardis (wrong colour - BT is painting them yellow these days). Stopping off points are seven freaky planets which Roland is searching for these flashing blue things. Roland has to collect lots of them in order to build his superweapon.

This is another platforms and leaping game, of the Manic Miner ilk with a few new wrinkles added to the old game plan. While there are only seven levels, each one is about three-and-a-quarter screens wide by two-and-a-half screens high. As you move Roland around, the background scrolls smoothly, though at certain times you can get a fair amount of 'tear' at the edges.

You don't have to complete each screen to pass on to another. After an excellent title page in which the planets spin in an elliptical orbit around you, you are offered a kind of graphical menu of the planets, and you choose which to visit. At any time you can return to your phone booth, transporting yourself back to the planet menu and another choice. This lets you practise each screen till you've got it sussed.

Roland In Space

Returning to this menu also lets you check the status of your superweapon, represented as a growing coloured bar across the screen, and the number of 're-generations' you have left - you start with nine. So far it doesn't seem like I'll get any extra. Maybe I'm not playing well enough (current high score, 8010).

There's plenty of variety in the locations. Sol 3 has ropes, helicopters, frogspawn and frogs (well, they're green and bug-eyed), birds, apples, spiders, skulls, and our old friend the conveyor belt. Alpha Centauri 4 has more frogs, false teeth, energy' blobs and spirals that flutter about, strange green aliens with long necks and hyperactivity, no through road signs, railings and stars.

Betelgeuse 2 is just a big city full of skyscrapers and office blocks, plus more galactic frogs and false teeth, flying saucers and a flying phone booth.

Roland In Space

Polaris 4 is pretty hard, with waterfalls and rivers, bridges, and homicidal Easter eggs. Algol 6 is a complete change of scene with a huge pyramid of tunnels guarded by beach balls, Rubik Cubes, and a cigarette stub.

Pollux 3 is an odd mixture of clouds, a rocket ship, a galleon in dock, and the Parthenon. Finally Arcturus 7 is an underwater world of lethal crabs, sea snakes, fish schools and seaweed. You can travel almost anywhere in this screen by swimming, so it's probably the easiest one to start on.

The graphics are surreal, blocky and garishly coloured, which isn't quite to my taste. Nevertheless, leaping fans will love it.

P.N.G.

Other Amstrad CPC464/664 Game Reviews By P.N.G.


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