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This surely must be one of the most imaginative of games software now on sale and is doubtless inspired by the block-busting film The Empire Strikes Back.

The sequence from which the game is taken is when Luke Skywalker has to destroy 90 tall mutant camels. You must fly close to the camels in order to progressively weaken their shields with your fire to make them disintegrate. As you weaken their neutronium shields they change colour from white to red, then to blue and finally back to white, before vanishing from the screen.

You cannot relax, however, as you are shooting the camels because they are shooting at you! The dreaded mutant camels (which are really sophisticated robots) fire standard laser bolts which steadily destroy your space craft. As pilot of the craft you must dodge the enemy fire, and if you are hit by three of the laser bolts your ship is destroyed.

Not only can the camels blow up your ship with standard type lasers they can also fire a special intermittent laser bolt of superior deadliness. For on contact with your ship it, and the space vessel, immediately explode. Nasty! Unfortunately, your only hope of avoiding these is to listen for the special tone emitted by the laser bolt.

Like most arcade style games the object of Attack of the Mutant Camels is to wipe out the aliens (in this case the camels) which confront you in waves. The camels give you up to 31 levels if you are good enough at hitting them with your own weaponry.

I found this game extremely compelling to play, perhaps one of the most addictive currently available for the Commodore 64. The action is very fast-moving and the game adopts excellent use of graphics and sound. For instance, there is a continual ominous sound of the marching gargantuan camels giving the game an unnerving sense of urgency to it! Well done Llamasoft.