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Not a whole lot of Amstrad CPC games are created with the tools of AGD (Arcade Game Designer), strange because a plethora of Spectrum games have been created with it, so when one comes along for the CPC, I take notice.

The setting for this old-fashioned platform game is as if it were being played between 1983-1985, is a flip screen, blue coloured musical sheet. Mike's one and only goal in life is to play a solo! His favourite band is Nirvana, so he wants to perform "Smells like teen spirit", whoever said little guitars don't have big dreams! But those old fuddy duddies "Ludwig Van B." to be precise and a bunch of old musical instruments want to stop Mike the guitar from achieving his dreams. Grinches aren't just for Christmas time as Mike finds out, the music industry has its own grinches that have put a number of plectrums behind walls making them trapped.

However due to old musical grinches having poor memories they forget to lock up one of the plectrums meaning that when Mike plays the guitar with the first free plectrum, somewhere else a wall will break down allowing Mike to reach another plectrum. There are 8 plectrums to be freed. Once achieved, Mike must get to the loudspeaker so he can connect and play his favourite song. During the game there are items that look like pink pills, these are batteries, when collected they give Mike's guitar more strength to survive the enemies and make his dreams come true. During the gameplay the musical instruments will move side to side, but Ludwig Van B will follow you till he catches you and he is pretty quick on his old feet.

The music by Shining. I was in contact with developer Sebastian Brauner, during his progress of the game when it had no music. What Shining did with the music is crazy good, the opening loading screen music is unexpected and hits you right between the ears with pleasure. The in game tune is also very good. The background, sprites and graphics are cool for the nature of this game. Points for originality of concept.

The gameplay is not so good. There are colour clash issues, the movement up and down the musical notes is not as smooth as I would have liked, you can get stuck very easily and then caught by one of the moving instruments too easily. Ludwig Van B is also a menace, he seems to move too fast for such an old foe, I mean he basically hunts you down till he catches you and you can't seem to get away from him, you really have to be quick to get to another screen to stop him following you. I know I may be sounding a bit harsh but there is nowhere enough batteries to collect to increase your energy.

I rather enjoyed the game, but it just has too many negatives that spoil it for me. It's a damn fine achievement for a game created with AGD but it's just seems to lack that essential enjoyment element of fun….aaargghh, it could have been really damn cool!