Previous Next

Virgin Games is having another stab at the games market. Changes include better packaging and, yes, better games.

Strangeloop is in the 'megagame' league. There are 240 screens, each depicted in very good graphics and the quest is hard. Your brief is to save the planet Earth (Oh no, not again!) by regaining control of a robot factory. The robots have been taken over by aliens, and reprogrammed to destroy planet Earth.

The hero, a spaceman, is superbly detailed and well animated, but although keyboard and joystick options are available, I found them both unresponsive. Indeed, controlling the spaceman is quite a challenge in itself. Your laser pistol's current charge is shown, as is your pocket status, i.e. what you're carrying. At all times there's a compass, indicating the direction to the Control Room.

Once, or perhaps if, you master control of the hero you have to move from room to room, trying to work out what to do next. The screen display shows the protagonist in his location, and below are all sorts of status indicators.

Naturally, there's an oxygen level to be carefully monitored, as well as a suit status indicator and a patches status report - you'll need these for repairing damage to your life-support system.

You start with eight lives, and a nice touch is that each time you lose a life you can start at any point on the current screen. Unusually for a game of this type, there's a save game facility.

Strangeloop is very well done, nicely presented and hard.