Previous Next

The first game we've looked at from new publisher Inufuto, Yewdow for the BBC Micro is a maze-based "direct the car" game. You take control a big-headed, doll-like character who might well have escaped from South Park. Your mission: to drop arrows around the maze to ensure a rampaging car collects up all the flags before time runs out.

The game is a bit frustrating to control. Firstly, it doesn't seem as smooth as you might expect; both the doll-thing and the car move quickly and take big steps rather than gliding like, for example, the Pac-Man ghosts do. Secondly, dropping an arrow can be a hit or miss affair. You need to press a direction key (ZX*?) in combination with RETURN to place an arrow pointing appropriately, but this sometimes proves very difficult.

The background music is ok, the graphics are passable and at least superficially it all looks attractive enough. The trouble is that the mazes are so small that they feel cramped - and you have to run around manically dropping arrows, and get each one of them just right to clear each maze... Although it can be done, it's such a tall order that I soon felt it was all a bit hopeless.

I think more lives (perhaps eight instead of three) would lengthen an average gaming session, and just introducing a delay to the main game loop would make it all a bit more forgiving.

Overall, it's a competent game, of the standard of a high quality magazine type-in rather than a professional release. There's enough to do to keep you on your toes, but a bit more polish before release would have resulted in a better game.