Previous Next

Ever fancied playing a nutty kid who sounds like a rejected Turtle? In Brat, you get the chance. Nathan, an otherwise cutesy baby, spends his evenings in Bratland, apparently located in his toy cupboard.

Bratland is made up of a convoluted maze of paths seen in isometric 3D on-screen. The novelty with this game is that you don't control Nathan directly - instead you take the role of his invisible guardian angel. As Nathan walks through the world, you must place arrows in his path to direct him through the current level and make sure he doesn't come a cropper.

You have to keep your wits about you - Nathan can stupidly walk off the pathways and plummet into an abyss, or even get blown off the world by its vicious inhabitants. As if this isn't enough, the screen is scrolling downwards all the time. If he gets caught at the top of the screen and there's nowhere to go, then poor old baby gets pushed off the edge!

Fortunately, you have some nifty gear at your disposal. Nathan has eleven pockets and during his perpetual strolling he automatically picks up objects that happen to lie in his path. Money and gems are important too because without cash you can't lay down any arrows for Nathan to follow. Other items help you deal with the many obstructions - with dynamite, for instance, you can blow up rocks.

There are three levels in Brat - Toytown, Park Land and Moon Base - and each level has many stages, but you have only three lives, and dying without completing a stage means going back to the start again. Finish a stage and a stork drops you some goodies for the next level.

Brat has beautiful visuals and the icon system works really well. The cursor you use to position the items in Bratland is in the form of a dummy - a nice touch. Nathan is full of character, hitching up his nappy and polishing his Ray Bans (in that order) when you leave him standing for a moment. There are loads of neat animated touches - the bobbing bird in level one, for instance. Scrolling is smooth too. The sound is adequate without being remarkable - a burbling tune and splatty spot effects for the most part.

Brat is a highly polished game with a unique control system. The attractive visuals are complemented by frantic gameplay - especially when Nathan is nearing the top of the screen and you can't whizz the cursor across the screen fast enough. It is very difficult to start with though, and you gradually get the feeling that having to go back to the start when you lose a life is detrimental overall. Still, such a novel game deserves to do well - it could start off a whole new genre.