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If you had to name the strangest game concepts to materialise on the Megadrive, you could probably count them on one hand. The most recent was the bizarre Boogerman, and this latest game to wobble and slurp out of the slimy mucus pits of Sega, is titled The Ooze. Taking its central character from the classically crap 50's B movie The Blob, it features all the blobby movements you may expect from a game based on a pool of snot, including rippling, masses of slime and other various pus-related objects usually restricted for unwashed crevices of Ed Lomas.

You control an ex-human being, who, in his bizarre experiments has somehow managed to transform himself into a runny nose lookalike. As a result, all his friends in white coats disowned him and now wouldn't even see fit to use him on their hankies. So he has to brave the elements and work his way to the laboratory to change back into this old self. Sounds a bit like my old chemistry teacher if you ask me.

The game situations are the sort of places you may expect to find a festering pool of bogeys, varying from Waste Plants to Toxic levels, and the innards of noses to the bowels of belly buttons (the last part is a lie). The game was developed by Sega's Technical Institute, and was due to be released a couple of months back, but someone decided that it should be scrapped, and then someone else decided to put it back into production, hence the delay. The main reason for its reinstatement was down to the reduced price that the producers offered Sega, providing too big an incentive to turn down.

Ooze can gob his spit as a weapon, which is good for long distance attacks, but the catch is that it causes a bit of your slime to disappear with every phlegm. The other move in his limited arsenal is a stretchy attack, which enables you to cling onto objects and pull yourself across, or pull a bonus towards you. The latter is especially useful if an enemy is lurking round a corner, as you can send your slimy protruding thing, to give them a good spanking. Ooer missus!

As you only control the head, the area of gloop acts as a sheep and follows you around. Although you can shoot out parts of the slime as an attack, the rest is uncontrollable so the head is your main control point.

The aforementioned bonce is where you spit from and the area that will lead to automatic death if it is hit. The gunk itself will disappear with hits, but until your head gets attacked, you'll stay alive. Most enemies don't go for your loaf until your ooze is down to a minimum, but some possess lasers that cut straight through, and can kill instantly.

Initially, the first impressions are that it's dull, slow and boorrrinnng. The game doesn't really kick off at any great pace but, having said that, it does get better. The graphics are atmospheric, but not overly impressive, and lack real sparkle. The tunes are pretty good however and sound like an oozy tune should sound.

If there are any impatient gamers out there who have the attention span of a Goldfish and are considering this, be warned: it takes time to really get into it. More time than you may usually expect. There are lots of levels to explore, and a novel idea is that you don't have to take the same route every time, as some stages have multiple paths for you to take.

But, looking at the whole thing it's a good buy for the price, but may not appeal to everyone.

I'm really into Ooze, and its sedate pace doesn't bother me as much as the sprightly Steve. Originally, us Brit Megadrive owners were to miss out on this, but luckily we now have the game and an extremely reasonable price.

Gameplay-wise, this is more original than most of the full-price platform fare going about, and has the advantage of being rather vast. The real attraction comes from the strange sensation of controlling an amorphous lump rather than a single character.

The game's hazards turn this to good effect, with laser's slicing bits off you, drains sucking you up, and fan blades nibbling away at your edges. It's great fun, gruesomely absorbing the leftover splat of your foes to make you stronger. Graphics could be better, sound is weak, but this is one of the stronger Megadrive titles of 1995.

Graphics 77%
N. The graphics are typically oozey, but lack the real imagination that could have made the difference.

Animation 70%
P. The slime sludges around, and fills the crevices quite realistically.
N. But everything else is rubbish.

Music 84%
P. The tunes are surprisingly good, and enhance the game a lot.

Effects 71%
N. Only two or three half decent cries, and not enough blobby, slimy noises.

Playability 78%
N. It's a bit too slow, and the action doesn't really pick up quick enough to keep the player entertained.

Lastability 79%
P. There are lots of levels to work your way around...
N. But have you got the patience?

Overall 79%
Had the possibility of being an inventive game, but has fallen flat on a few important areas. Still good for the price.