Previous Next

Zzzzz, Zzzzzz..... Zzzzzz... BRRRRRRRIIIINNNGGG!!! Er... ow... urgh! Wassat? Only eight thirty? Mmmmm, it's nice and warm under this duvet. I'll get up in a minute. Still plenty of time to get to work if I... Zzzzzz... Zzzzzz...

One of life's great mysteries has to be how come you always feel more knackered when you wake up than when you went to bed? I mean, it's not like you've been doing anything strenuous just lying there for eight hours or so. Or have you? Maybe, just maybe, you've been getting some early morning exercise without even knowing it. Maybe you've been sleepwalking.

Lee, the somnambulistic title star of Sleepwalker, must wake up feeling like he's been on a ten mile hike. And there's a good reason for this - usually, he has. Lee, y'see, just can't lie still. As soon as his eyes are closed, his feet go on automatic, and he's straight out of the bedroom window for a nocturnal stroll. But if Ralph, Lee's dog, does his job well, then Lee shouldn't know anything about it

Ralph understands that you should never wake up a sleepwalker (quite why I'm not sure; maybe the psychological shock of finding out that the world at large has discovered what you wear - or don't wear - in bed is too much to handle!). So this faithful hound goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure that Lee's slumber is undisturbed.

Sleepwalker is a bit like a cross between Pipemania and cutesy platform game - a weird combination, perhaps, but one that works brilliantly. Like the flow of ooze in the classic puzzle game Lee plods on relentlessly while you, in control of Ralph, have to guide him through each level as un-traumatically as possible.

This requires a combination of scouting ahead to work out the safest route, nudging and kicking Lee to gat him going the right way, collecting bonuses, moving objects about, bashing lurking nasties and using Ralph as a canine bridge across the smaller gaps. Lee's a very deep sleeper, though, and it takes quite a bit to wake him up, but every little jolt or knock brings him ever nearer to consciousness.

Sleepwalker is an ingenious mix of puzzling, timing, skill and speed. At first it's darned frustrating because you want to suss out the best route through a level by going for an exploration, but you can't leave Lee on his own for too long 'cos you know that any second he's going to fall down some hole, get run over by a car or eaten by a crocodile. But, hey! That's what the game's all about - that's what gives it the edge over your average, predictable, mindless, rush-headlong-in-and-blast-everything-in-sight platformer. Once you get used to the idea, the task of keeping Lee blissfully unaware of his plight is incredibly engrossing; I eventually had to have the joystick surgically removed. [Actually, Clur threatened to 'surgically remove' the joystick with a baseball bat - Ed]

The progressively bizarre levels are brilliantly designed - they're not just "Legend Quest-ingly" massive, but full of alternative routes and dead ends just to make things even more confusing. But it's worth having a good look around every corner, because there are loads of pick-ups and bonus bubbles lurking about. Collect all the bonuses and you go on to the bonus level in which you have to collect as many giant red noses as you can within a time limit.

Red noses? Ah, didn't I mention that Sleepwalker is the official Comic Relief game? Well, it is. And the game is, in places, side-splittingly funny... well, okay, so it's not in the Naked Gun league of comic genius, but you'd be stretched to find a C64 game that raises more grins. There are some great animation effects that Tex Avery would have been proud of - and even a guest appearance by the Monty Python foot.

You really never know what to expect next, but you can be sure that whatever it is, it be worth not expecting (if you see what I mean). [Er, no! - Ed] For every copy of Sleepwalker sold, some money goes to Comic Relief. But unlike those rubbish charity pop singles recorded by fading teeny pop starts desperately frying to revive their flagging careers, Sleepwalker is actually well worth buying in its own right. Despite a couple of graphical glitches, a scraggy-looking Ralph sprite and a few less than awe-inspiring backgrounds, it's a brilliant game which twists and turns constantly, never gets dull and challenges all your game-playing skills to their limits. It's one of those truly original games that you come away from thinking, "Why can't they all be this good?"

So buy Sleepwalker, help save lives - real ones for a change - and experience one of the best new C64 games in ages at the same time. Doesn't it make you feel all sort of warm inside? Even more than just having eaten a gargantuan prawn vindaloo.

Graphics 75%
Great animation and loads of colour - but Ralph could have been better.

Sound 68%
Sparse, but intelligently used. At least there's no annoying music.

Playability 88%
A bit weird to get a handle on at first, but it rapidly gets its hooks into you.

Lastability 97%
It never gets dull, and the more you play, the more you'll like it.

Overall 90%