Marooned on the moon
AS a well-known android once said, "Life? Don't talk to
me about life". In this program it's a commodity that doesn't
last very long.
On first inspection, the game seems simple enough. You control
Joey, an astronaut marooned inside the Moon-base whose only means
of escape is to find the Doctor.
He will want payment for transporting you to earth in his police
box, but scattered around the base are bags of gold which you
can pick up as you go along.
So off you go from room to room, moving left, right, up, down,
towards or away from the screen (yes, 3D graphics, folks). But
then the complications start.
The Moonbase also contains the nastiest set of inhabitants since
the Borgias. There's Deadly Doris, a TV set on legs, who has the
unfortunate habit of turning people into frogs.
Then there's the Metal Mauler, a vicious Dalek clone, and the
Green Grappler, a creature with all the pacifist instincts of
a tanked-up Chelsea fan.
And as if they weren't enough, there's good old Marvin, a robot
with a line in conversation so riveting that you're
literally bored to death in seconds.
To help you survive, you have a small supply of Hulk pills,
which temporarily turn you into a rampaging green monster capable
of smashing through walls. However, these don't last long, and
they leave you even weaker than before.
As I said, survival isn't easy.
The game is so fast it is fiendishly difficult, but the excellent
graphics make it great fun to play, and the feeling that next
time I'm sure I can crack it kept me reaching for the replay button.
James Bibby
