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Top Top first appeared way back in 2015 as an entry into that year's #cpcretrodev contest. The original version was in Spanish and consisted of only five levels. The game ranked 3 out of 36 with quite a high rating of 8.69 out of 10 and received the third prize in the "PRO" category. While it has been a long time in coming, Rantan Games have now released a much more polished English version with improved graphics and more levels. Twenty, to be precise.

The game manual simply states that this is a two player game. Your goal is to reach the last floor of the 20th level by working together. You start at level one and you work your way upwards to level 20. If you don't have a friend to play with you won't get the most out of the gameplay. Even though you can play the game as one person working the two in game characters you don't get the same enjoyment, believe me you just won't. It's a bit like my workplace, one person working the job of two people and that's no fun, trust me.

Without any further details from the manual I must assume the game takes place in a tower. On either side of the screen are two cute female magicians, one red and the other blue. Your goal is to reach the top platform of each level and to do so the magicians must work together. Each magician is faced with the same set of tasks on their side of the screen. To get to the top of their platform, they must rely on the other magician to perform the tasks necessary to help them get to the top, hence the naming of the game being called Top Top.

Level one starts off very easy with the main task of pressing a coloured lever - blue magician presses a red lever to open red gates for the red magician to pass through and make their way to the top, and the red magician presses blue levers to allow the blue magician to advance upwards. Collecting a key allows the magicians to pass through the last gate and onto the next level. Movement is by keyboard only and there is quite a bit of running and jumping involved. As you progress through the levels, the game introduces new items to collect in the form of stars and potions as well as new obstacles to avoid such as spikes, animated blobs and green coloured bricks, the last two can be removed by using your shooter in four directions. The task of moving upwards becomes progressively harder as pressing a lever on the higher levels simply won't open a gate that will allow you to get to the next gate, the levers will open different gates and working co-operatively is the only way to solve the puzzles. When you get to about the 7th level you need to shoot clear bubbles to change their colour either red or blue to open new passageways for your magicians to find their way safely to the top of the level. This is where the puzzles become harder to solve and the two player co-op element becomes essential.

The music is what grabbed me straight away, such a catchy tune, one that fits in very well with the gameplay. The fact that you can actually play a damn good two player game in mode 0 is pretty cool for the CPC. Graphically its very well presented, the colours used are excellent, sprites are cute and charming. As each level progresses there's something new to discover and a new solution must be found to get to the top platform of a level. The originality of the gaming experience keeps you hooked and the level design plays a starring role in maintaining your interest.

Unfortunately keys only.

Two player co-op games like this don't appear very often on the Amstrad CPC, when they do they stand out and Top Top stands out for all the right reasons. A beautifully, professionally presented game, full of playability, character and charm. The tune might be basic in nature but it is incredibly catchy even the birds outside my window started to sing. 20 levels of wonderful platforming co-op puzzle fun.