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Wake Me Up! is one of the stranger Spectrum titles released in the past few years. You play an adventurer who has fallen into a terrible nightmare from which he must awaken by solving an array of puzzles and overcoming numerous enemies. The most striking thing is the game's fond nods towards pop culture, as well as its great sense of humour.

The intro features Darth Vader igniting his lightsaber accompanied by an 8-bit version of the Imperial March theme from The Empire Strikes Back, and then there's a swift cut to an animation of the Death Star exploding. This has abslutely nothing to do with the narrative, but any Star Wars fan will appreciate the bizarre homage.

The gameplay itself is fairly diverse for an adventure/platformer, with the nightmare-ridden hero having to alternate between shooting certain enemies, and flat-out avoiding others. There are also many different puzzles to solve, which usually involve accessing a computer terminal and playing the mini-games that appear on each screen, with every game being very different and often quite challenging.

The graphics are good for the most part; though some character and enemy sprites look like simplified stick drawings this looks more like a stylistic choice than poor design. The controls are responsive but perhaps a little too sensitive during some of the mini-games, which can really hinder a quick completion of each puzzle.

But with a bit of patience and learning to tap the movement keys, as opposed to properly pressing them down, it is manageable.

The music is particularly good, with the main theme tune playing every time you reach a puzzle. Although the tune isn't particularly nightmarish, it is fun and catchy, complementing Wake Me Up!'s overall light-hearted feel.

A bit of an oddball game. Discovering what's what is, I guess, part of the game, but it's all pretty random. There are puzzles to solve and objects to collect, but the two don't necessarily meet under any sort of logic. For example, there's a fireball weapon but it does nothing to enemies and only seems to help in one small puzzle.

Logic may not apply in a dreamworld, but that doesn't necessarily translate into good gameplay. The mini-games are a nice idea, but their implementation is crude compared to the rest. Jumping is tricky too, particularly when moving up or down between screens.

There are some good ideas here and it's worth exploring, but it's not a game that keeps calling me back.

Control Keys: Keyboard only
Keyboard Play: Responsive
Use Of Colour: Bright and appealing
Graphics: Simple but effective
Sound: Great music and adequate sound effects
Skill Levels: 3 (for a laugh try out 'baby' level first!)
Screens: 30+
General Rating: Fun game with a lot going for it. Don't take it too much to heart as Wake Me Up! certainly doesn't take itself seriously.