Can you pit your wits down the pits and collect together the nine pieces of a broken shield that have been scattered around the five different levels of the dungeon depths of Pit Fiend?

Previous Next

You use the arrow keys to move your man round the mazes (corridors through brick-Pike structures), with the 'U' and 'D' keys to move up or down a level provided you're standing on one of the appropriate staircases that link the different levels. Move over a bit of the shield and it's filled in on the mini-shield at the foot of the screen.

You start with three lives, and as in Microdeal games of yore you can choose from three different coloured screens, though anyone choosing the buff screen will need their eyes testing, afterwards if not before. A supply of oxygen is running out at the right of the screen, while you also have to contend with the pit fiends themselves, Pacman-like ghosts which roam the corridors. Your defence against these is to bash the space bar to send a spinning knife in the direction you're facing. Or it may be a boomerang, as it does come bouncing back to you.

The man plods round the corridors well enough, and the game is quite tricky without exactly having me coming back for more. Pit Fiend is about average among these recent Pocket Money releases, more or less what I expected the £1.99 range to provide. Okay, but not worth a full price release.