Previous Next

Micro Power's range now includes this excellent version of the popular Mr. Do arcade game. The idea is to guide a wizard (Mr. Ee) round various screens, collecting groups of cherries and killing monsters called Umphs who try to stop him. There are two ways of disposing of an Umph - the apples dotted around the screen may be pushed or dropped onto the creature, or Mr. Ee can resort to throwing his crystal ball at it.

When all the cherries are eaten or all the Umphs are vanquished, thescreen ends. There are ten different screen layouts in the shape of numbers.

At the top of the screen are five special letters - E, X, T, R, A. Every 5,000 points, one letter turns into a letter monster, and if this is killed the letter changes colour. Once all five have been collected you gain an extra life. If Mr. Ee walks over the Umphs' hideout at the centre of the screen, a letter will come on, and three especially nasty characters appear. On killing them, the game speeds up.

As for graphics, the game follows the original almost exactly - in fact it's hard to tell the difference. Movement is smooth, colour has been used well, and the backgrounds are cleverly done - some are stripes or mottled. Sound is also above average.

I have only one or two slight criticisms of Mr. Ee. Once, for no reason, the game locked up on me. There is also a bug which causes a dead Umph to continue falling from top to bottom of the screen again and again. Annoying, but it's a rare occurrence.

Apart from these minor problems, we have another classic arcade game to follow the excellent Killer Gorilla. The whole program is very well written, a delight to play, and, I'm sure, a bestseller for the Beeb.