Previous Next

Tujad has broken down. With the malfunction has come madness and it is now unable to recognise GEN 19, the most sophisticated droid ever built. The problem lies in a faulty sub processor and you must control GEN 19 as it attempts to recover the fifty elements that go to make up the microchip. Tujad will bring all its powers and forces to bear against you for its defence mechanisms are still functioning perfectly and it has decided that you are an intruder.

As you wander around the complex, you have a variety of weapons at your disposal and you can toggle between them by pressing the space bar. Various nasties materialise but these only deplete your energy and can be easily wasted with your normal gun. There are other more powerful enemies though, which will claim one of your lives upon contact. Some of these can be dodged but some must be destroyed and it is a case of working out which of your additional weapons does the job - the green grenade, or the yellow or the pink.

You only have limited initial supplies of these weapons although others can be found. One of the most frequent causes of failure in your mission is forgetting to switch back to your gun after using one of your 'specials' and finding that you have just fired off your entire supply of green grenades by mistake!

Pieces of the circuit board are picked up automatically simply by walking over them and you then see them placed in a grid which will build up the completed board. You can also find extra lives and energy as well as further supplies of weaponry. There is no on-screen scoring but at the end of the game you are awarded a 'percentage completed score' - two percent for each piece of the puzzle collected.

There are over 100 rooms to be explored. There is no scrolling between them but rather a new room appears when you move out of the old one. Graphically, the game is quite attractive although the pictures of computers and assorted bits of machinery have no functional use. The complex is arranged in sections and you will have to find the appropriate teleport chamber if you are to move from one section to another.

Tujad, written by Orpheus and released by Ariolasoft, has one major flaw which spoils an otherwise quite enjoyable game. It is far too easy. Remember all the Ultimate games where you used to struggle to get 4% on your first few games? In Tujad I started with over 30% and by my eighth go had finished the game completely. At £8.95, this cannot be good value for money.