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Tilt is a distinctly odd variation on familiar themes. There's a rolling metal ball, an exit, and a maze which must be manipulated to join the two. It's not that different in concept from Pipe-Mania, but made far more difficult by the fact the ball starts moving as soon as you start - and in one-player mode you have no control over the ball whatsoever. All you can do is move pieces of the maze around, much like one of those ancient sliding-block puzzles. Such puzzles are never easy, and as there are plenty of holes for the ball to fall down while you're working, it's extremely difficult!

Two-player mode allows a friend to control the ball's direction via keys, but needless to say this isn't the most exciting of things to do. Nevertheless, using this method it is possible to progress - at last - and you could use this mode as a single player, diverting the ball at crucial junctions with a fair bit of skill - and luck!

Each labyrinth is different in layout and contains plenty of traps for our little hero, plus there's a bonus countdown timer which awards points depending on how many seconds are left when you exit. And if time runs out first, you lose a life.

Fortunately, the countdown can be set back by collecting blue tins (for 500 time units). Other tins to collect are red (for a thousand points) and purple (extra life).

The further along you travel, the increasingly harder the traps become. Each trap has a different function: some will slow you down, or mislead you, others will kill you.

There are lots of options though: nine levels of difficulty and a choice between music or sound FX, both of which are quite good. Incidentally, the title tune isn't far from a rendition of 'Funkytown'.

When you start the game, you're presented with a large playing area in relation to the number of pieces you can move about. Graphics are average and work with the game pretty well.

Tilt is slickly done, but this type of gameplay is extremely frustrating and hard. You spend too much time trying to stop the ball from moving and cannot finish the puzzle.

Two-player mode is so boring for the second player you need a robot, and with Corky's help we did get to Level Five, but had no desire to play again. A better approach would be to allow you to set the maze first, using the countdown timer, and then allow the ball to be released.

Overall, not a very inspiring game!

The point of this extraordinary game defies me. Unless you fancy solving endless 'sliding panel' puzzles, there's very little to keep your attention. And, even if you like this type of thing, you'll need to rope some poor soul into a two-player game where they have the incredibly joyless task of controlling Bally the Ball.

If the computer controls the ball (i.e. one-player mode) the game becomes frustratingly difficult.

There's not a lot of fun to go round in Tilt, not enough for one, let alone two players. The bonus ball, tunnels, extra points and other features don't do enough to spice things up.

It's basically a straightforward game of strategy where fans of mind games will unfortunately have to chain an assistant to their C64 to get anything out of it at all. But then again I suppose you could swap roles after every level if you didn't have a Corky to help!

Presentation 75%
Good options, nine levels, practical screens.

Graphics 50%
Simple, simple and simple.

Sound 70%
Nice opening tune, reasonable in-game.

Hookability 45%
Frustratingly difficult for one player, tedious for a second player.

Lastability 47%
After playing a few levels, boredom sets in.

Overall 46%
Might appeal to game-players who like *very hard*, boring games.