The first game this month from a Spectrum publisher we have not seen before, Yumiko In The Haunted Mansion is an overhead maze game for the Spectrum 48K. The object is to roam 36 floors of a mansion with only a candle for company. The candle casts a light in an arc around you, meaning you can gain an appreciation of all open and closed spaces. However, and as you'll see from the screenshots, the majority of the screen is completely jet black. It's dark – and you're alone.
More terrifyingly, every few moments the entire maze is temporarily lit by a flash of lightning. What's that ghostly-looking thing a few steps beyond the candle's reach? The answer is the very definition of the word eerie.
Unfortunately for a game that looks so promising, playing Yumiko is decidedly dull. Your only goal is to light each of the candles on every floor and you have a map to reference where the candles are. The ghost never actually does anything other than freak you out the first time you see it; whether it's there or not makes no difference. It never attacks, just wanders around blowing out the candles you have already lit.
The game is available from Fun Forge on original cassette at £7.99 (E-mail: retrozx@gmail.com whilst stocks last), or can be downloaded from World Of Spectrum.