Amiga Power


Catch 'Em
By Prestige
Amiga 500

 
Published in Amiga Power #18

Catch 'Em

Catch 'Em is foreign, and cute, and nothing quite like you've ever played before. It also begs to be reviewed in the well-worn manner of spending the remainder of the word count explaining with the game entails, with an indecisive "Try it - you might like it" message to conclude.

So then, here goes. Jeff is a zoo-keeper. One day, while reading his newspaper, some apes escape from their cages and scatter themselves throughout 30 levels. There are three types of ape - chimpanzee, orangoutan and gorilla - each kind with its own cage placed somewhere on the level. Obviously it's your task to return each ape to the correct cage one at a time, but specific tactics must be adopted to catch them.

The chimps can be hit over the head with a baseball bat, but only when they stop to eat. So you'll need to collect a bat (which has a limited number of hits), collect some food, drop it in the path of the ape, clonk him one, stick him in your bad and release him in the appropriate cage.

Catch 'Em

Orang-outans move somewhat more slowly around the screen and so can be hit and bagged in one. However, they do move ladders around for you, and as some platforms can only be reached by these ladders you'd better wait until they've moved the ladders to where you want them. The gorillas, too, can simply be hit and bagged, but watch out as they're likely to pick you up instead, making you drop the contents of your sack. There's only one thing likely to tame a gorilla, and that's a good kiss-up - so lure a male and female gorilla together and as the snogging session unfurls, you'll be safe.

Falling from a platform is another surefire method to dropping any apes you may have collected (you can only carry one at a time), as is slipping on a banana skin if you haven't seen fit to picking it up first (they're a little tricky to spot, I'll grant you) and depositing it in a nearby bin. The bananas come from banana boxes from which the chimpanzees can steal the fruit and drop the peel - these boxes can be nailed shut (collect the nails first) but if there are two or more chimps about then they can re-open them.

And, with a few more details not essential to this review, that's about the size of it. Quite big, in other words, with thirty levels increasing to a scrolling twenty five screens on the largest, and quite an entertaining outing at that. And challenging too - make a mistake or run out of time and you'll be sure to see what you did wrong ready for next time. Basically, if you enjoyed the totally bizarre concepts of Lemmings or Gobliiins, then perhaps you could make something of Catch 'Em too.

The Bottom Line

Weird but fun, and instantly graspable. Try it, you might like it.

Rich Pelley

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