Dank Zeppelin/Impulze werden nach den C64-Usern nun auch wir mit den Helden einer englischen Puppentrick-Reihe belästigt. Belästigt? Ja, belästigt, dieses Hüpfical haben wir nämlich etwa ebenso dringend gebraucht, wie einen Hammerschlag auf den Hinterkopf.

Aber bitte: Doc Croc und Co. haben Probleme - eigentlich wollten sie nur ein lustiges Comicmagazin basteln, doch dann explodierte die Druckerpresse, und nun müssen deren Einzelteile sowie neun verschwundene Heftseiten im städtischen Abwassersystem zusammengesammelt werden.

Vier verschiedene "Redakteure" und ebensoviele Kanalnetze stehen zur freien Kombination bereit. Jeder aus der Crew kann hüpfen, durch Seitenrohre in andere Kanäle klettern sowie bei Berührung mit Wasser, Fledermäusen, Teddies oder sonstigen Feinden sterben.

Findet er eine ihm zugehörige Seite, rettet er sie, indem er quasi durch den animierten Strip hindurchläuft, ohne mit irgendjemandem zusammenzustoßen. Also sozusagen ein Jump & Run im Jump & Run. Und weil der Redaktionsschluß naht, muß halt in begrenzter Zeit alles wieder beisammen sein.

Das Gameplay ist fad, das Scrolling nicht ganz ruckelfrei, überhaupt wirken die Comic-Grafik, der Soundtrack und die FX ziemlich einschläfernd. Immerhin hat man seinen jeweiligen Hüpfer mit dem Stick ganz gut unte Kontrolle, von der ziemlich ungenauen Kollisionsabfrage mal abgesehen. Vermutlich also kein wirklich mieses Game, aber ganz sicher kein gutes. (jn)

If you didn't have us lot at AP to aid you in buying games and just went for the ones that looked interesting, I reckon you'd end up disappointed a lot of the time. Here's a case in point. Stuart rather kindly let me choose the budget games I wanted to review this month, and after looking at the plot lines and screen shots I chose this as one of them. I thought it looked wacky, different and refreshing.

Basically if i'd have been in a shop clutching eight quid, this is the one I would have gone for. Let's see how it strikes you. A video printing press has been invented, but has been accidentally blown up by Doc Croc, blasting the latest edition of the comic he works on all over the sewers.

There are four characters which you control around the sewers to pick up the bits of the video printing press and the pages of the comic and bring back the joke punchlines.

You choose the character you want to control from the Doc's office, then choose one of the four drains they can enter. From then on it's 8-bit-style platform antics all the way, with the emphasis on jumping and avoiding things. If you find that character's comic page you can enter the page and play a little sub-game to get to the punchline jokes.

If you find another character's comic page, remember where it is and on the next go send that character to get the punchline. (If all this sounds familiar, it's because it's all based on the old kiddies' TV show Round The Bend. In fact, the game was a Round The Bend licence in its 8-bit incarnation, but now, probably because the show's not on any more, it's got a new name. Shame they did not change the title screen, though. Okay, Tim, all yours again. - Ed)

There's a time limit to do it all in, of course, and finding a punchline increases the time left to complete the task. See? It sounds great, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its promise. One of the most irritating factors is that if you get hit by anything you're immediately sent back to the office, which is more than a bit annoying when you're just getting the hang of one of the drains.

The graphics have a very b-bit look to them, which isn't too shabby but definitely could be better. Probably the worst thing about the game, though, is that you never feel rewarded for your efforts, I guess until you've finished the game (which I haven't).

Okay, so you might find a few pages, but half the time you're using the wrong character so you can't do anything with them. The levels get easier with familiarity, but can still be annoyingly tricky, and before you know it is time's up and the game's over, and you feel like you've achieved nothing.

Most of us play games to get some sort of feeling of satisfaction, even if it is from the complete annihilation of a species, so I can't see this one being on anyone's play-list for long.