Previous Next

I think it's true to say that there aren't that many games around where you can bounce off a 90 foot high camel while trying to blast it with your spaceship's neutron cannon.

If there are other games in which you can do this, chances are that they come from Jeff Minter's Llamasoft, as does Attack Of The Mutant Camels.

This is a simple shoot-'em-up arcade game, simple in concept if not in play. You have to shoot the six camels before they overrun the sector. It's the difficulties which make it a challenging, and therefore enjoyable, game.

For a start, control of your spaceship is not easy. Moving the joystick to one side turns the ship and starts it accelerating in the corresponding direction. Trouble is, once it is moving, the ship has inertia. Suffice to say that control takes a bit of practice.

The camels need shooting more than once, and they shoot back. If you collide with one, you bounce off with tremendous force. If you're between two camels when you collide, you can be bounced back and forth. Bouncing is not to be recommended because it depletes your shield.

If you can clear the six camels you then enter hyperdrive. Whereas in most games, this would simply lead to the next level, in Mutant Camels the hyperdrive is a challenge in itself.

After a warning, you start to accelerate across the landscape and a rocket barrage comes toward you. If you don't successfully dodge all the rockets you lose a ship and must clear the same sector again.

Before play starts, you can choose from six levels of difficulty ranging from "Real Cool" to "Like Wow". The colour of the landscape reflects the level, from an icy blue to a scorching crimson.

Attack Of The Mutant Camels is a difficult game to master, even at the lower levels, and I enjoyed trying. The tape costs £7.50 and as far as I know it isn't yet available on disc.