Commodore User


Oops!

Author: Bill Scolding
Publisher: The Big Apple
Machine: Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Commodore User #59

Oops!

Oops! signals the arrival of a new name in the software biz, that of the Big Apple Entertainment Co - a grand title for a company based not in NY but in the less salubrious surroundings of the Brunswick Industrial Park, N11.

One of the 'first pickings from the Big Apple tree', Oops! is described in the publicity handouts as being 'as original as it is fiendish, as fresh as it is addictive'. Well, if Big Apple's idea of an original game is this tired old Pac-man derivative, then let's all pray that the Big Apple tree has a lean crop this year.

It's one of those games where you have to move your 'droid' (funny pulsating square thing) along the pathways of the 'space-time continuum' (32 tiled grids) to collect the 'vital gravity pods' (pulsating circular thingies).

Oops!

The skill lies in mapping out a route around each grid which allows you to pick up all the pods as well as passing over as many bonus cells as possible, gaining eextra points, lives and time. As these bonus cells are identical to the booby-trapped cells which cause the pathways to disintegrate, it's a case of learning from your mistakes. Fortunately, the layout of each grid remains the same from one game to the next.

There are various other surprises in store, such as arrows which push you into oblivion, tiles which teleport you from one corner of the grid to another, and pathways which flash in and out of existence, making movement along them a matter of split-second timing.

And all the while you've got to keep out of the way of the bouncing ball (oops! sorry - I mean 'electron bomb') and never stay in one spot for too long in case the rampant Rimblords come pelting horizontally or vertically towards you. Your droid is armed with a delayed-action explosive to use against the enemy, though you might find it's better just to keep out of danger's way.

As with all games of this ilk, interest wanes quickly and the further you succeed in getting, the less likely it is that 'oops!' will be your exclamation when your droid dies and it's back to square one.

Lack of variety, tedious music, distracting background graphics... Oops! has all this and worse, but what really hurts is the ten quid price-tag. We've been playing boring grid games for half a decade now, and if any software house has the nerve to release this kind of thing in 1988 then at least it shouldn't expect us to cough up more than two quid of it.

Bill Scolding