9 Lives logo

ARC £24.99 * Joystick

It's a cats life. Getting beaten, biffed and booted wherever you may roam. But you've got more important things to worry about than your own health and safety. Your favourite-feline female has been captured by a bunch of evil scientists, who are going to perform lots of nasty animal experiments, then scoop out her scull and turn it into an ash-tray,

So it's up to you to rescue the unfortunate pusskins. That involves making your way through four levels - comprising of hundreds of screens - of tortuous arcade action, filled with all manner of creatures determined to deter you in your all important task

Big and bold
It's a cutie platform game, and features some of the biggest, boldest cartoon graphics this side of Warner Bros Studios. Everything is handled with a comic air. Virtually every action has an amusing graphical sequence. Picking up a pack of cigarettes starts you smoking. Collecting a pair of wings turns your tail into rotor blades, giving you the power of flight.

There are plenty of pick-ups to help you. There are a minority of harmful ones though, so be careful.

Jumping is achieved by holding down the joystick. The longer you hold it down for before letting go, the more powerful it is and the further you leap.

Death in Nine Lives comes in many different ways. Falling too far is fatal, as is walking or jumping onto a set of spikes. Collision with a creature steadily eats away at your health, unfortunately you can't kill them, but you can stun them for a short time, whch is a help as they are then unable to do any harm to you.

Dead 'Ard
The one gripe, and unfortunately it's a major one, is that the game is frustratingly difficult. It's not even worth bothering to avoid collision with the other creatures that inhabit the strange world in which the game is based. You know that you'll crash straight into them anyway. It's best to simply try and spend as little time in contact with them as you can, and jumping to the relative safety of a nasty-free platform.

But the act of jumping is laced with peril too. You've got to time it with perfect precision. The implementation of variable sized jumps is a nice idea, but in practice proves almost impossible. It's only by trial and error that the timing for a particular leap can be found. And by that time you have probably halved your quota of lives.

Great graphics are no substitute for gameplay. While you chuckle at the animations initially, they soon wear off. Sadly there isn't an awful lot left underneath.


9 Lives logo

Wer mal sehen will, wie man ein nettes Plattformspielchen durch eine ungenaue Steuerung und übelstes Ruckel-Scrolling ruinieren kann, der liegt hier goldrichtig!

Die neun Leben aus dem Titel gehören Bob Katz, einem entzückenden Kater. Ihm soll man dabei helfen, seine geliebte Claudette aus den Fängen eines Wissenschaftlers zu retten, der das arme Kätzchen für Tierversuche mißbrauchen will. Dazu hüpft man vier Level lang über Plattformen, schlägt Eulen, Ratten, Spinnen und anderes Getier mit einem ausrollbaren Wollknäuel K.O. Und sammelt Extras ein. Um weiterzukommen, müssen zudem pro Level sechs Kumpel des streitbaren Katers aus ihren Käfigen befreit werden.

Die originell gestalteten Gegner sind gar nicht mal sooo gefährlich; Probleme bereiten in erster Linie die Gartenzäune, die an bestimmten Stellen plötzlich aus dem Boden schießen - sie schicken unseren Stubentiger nämlich sofort in den Katzenhimmel. Bei den Extras gibt's außer den üblichen (Lebensmittel, Schlüssel, etc.) auch ein paar recht ungewöhnliche: Sonnenbrillen machen Bob unsichtbar, und Flügel bringen ihm kurzzeitig das Fliegen bei.

Grafisch wäre 9 Lives eigentlich ganz in Ordnung - bunte Farben, ulkige Gegner und lustige Animationen. Tja, wenn nur nicht alles so erbärmlich ruckeln würde! Ähnliches gilt für die Steuerung: Bob kann laufen, sich ducken und riesige Sprünge machen (deren Weite über eine Anzeige am Screenrand festgelegt wird), aber eben nichts davon so richtig präzise. Was schließlich noch den Sound angeht: man kann ihn gottseidank abschalten... (C. Borgmeier)