Previous Next

In this rather fun game from Interceptor, Walter (your lovable balloon) has the onerous task of saving his planet Plato from loads of nasty, furry Fuzz-balls. These, due to a freak mishap in time, are causing havoc everywhere - and that's not all!

On the first beautifully scrolling screen, you have to contend with not only stomping on the Fuzz-balls, but Grandma's false teeth, and they are fatal. So is landing on rough ground, hitting an erupting volcano or running into a tree - Walter being a balloon, bursts very easily.

The next screen is a scrolling frozen waste where the baddies are this time 'Manic-depressive mutants practising body popping', but, along with the rest of the graphics they're nicely defined and quite appealing. I especially loved little Walter's waggling feet and his huge grin when stomping on baddies.

The sound isn't brilliant - a rather coarse rendition of 'The Yellow Rose of Texas' is played at the beginning of each game, after which Walter makes a loud whooshing noise for both bouncing and floating. The Fuzz-balls hiss when stomped on and poor old Walter explodes with a bang on collision - thank goodness Grandma's teeth don't chatter!

On a better point, control of your balloon is easy. You just press the fire button on your joystick to float and let go of it to land, as well as moving left and right.

Unfortunately, it doesn't say this in the inlay. Oh well, I suppose you can't have everything.

There are four levels - each one a different landscape. Moving on to the next seems to depend on time rather than the amount of Fuzz-balls collected. When you do manage it however, 'Sooper!' comes up on the screen and Walter's off again.

What a shock to see large-scale scrolling graphics on the Vic! OK, they flicker, but they're still very impressive. Loved them.

The continuously moving landscape is reminiscent of Scramble but, in this game, you can't shoot.

However, just dodging the teeth and other nasties is plenty difficult enough. Trying to stomp on some of the Fuzz-balls is nigh impossible.

The graphics more than compensated for the average sound and I found it addictive and enjoyable.

Funny old game this, obviously dredged up from the recesses of someone's imagination.

The scrolling and animation are some of the best I have seen on the Vic but the playability of the game was a slight drawback.

You seemed to be able to squash very few Fuzz-balls and control is not easy. The game is still enjoyable though and the volcanoes, trees and false teeth are enough to keep you busy. Don't let on but the Ed's been missing his set for a few days.