For those of you who ran like the clappers to your local software shop for a copy of Hunchback, here's a new load of bells to keep you hunched over your screens for a little longer. Not that there's anything wrong with the sound, graphics and general fun, but if you can reach fourth of five screens in an initial session, it doesn't bode well for months of games playing.
You need a joystick to control the Incredible Hump as he leaps and runs around the platforms that make up each screen, ringing all the little bells in sight. The first screen has just four platforms, with nine little bells on each (rung by running over them), and you move from platform to platform by leaping and grabbing (you hope) one of the ropes that moves up and down either side. When you ring the last little bell you move on to the next screen.
Like the first, this has birds flying from side to side - the inlay card claims bats, but that ain't what they look like. Some birds come at you at head height, others aim straight for the knees if you don't jump.
Screen two adds moving platforms, as well as a sliding hook at the top, though you can in fact get round without having to resort to this. The game is said to get more difficult, but screen three is one of the easiest, or so it seemed. On screen four I did come to grief, though, with cannon-balls bouncing round the place - I couldn't get to the bells for the balls, so to speak.
Hunchback II is an excellent display of programming skill, but it should have been tougher and generally zappier all round.