Freundlich zur Natur ist sie nämlich, die Box aus Recyclingkarton - nur das Plattformgame darin ist leider alles andere als freundlich.

Zwar steht es ganz in der Tradition von "Captain Planet" und ist laut Packungsaufdruck "fesselnd wie Sonic oder Mario", doch leider sieht die Realität mal wieder ziemlich anders aus: Was sich da auf dem Bildschirm präsentiert, ruiniert die Augen, zerstört das Trommelfell und tötet den letzten Nerv!

Um den drohenden Umweltkollaps abzuwenden, hüpft man unter Zeitdruck (steigender Wasserpegel) durch zwölf vertikal scrollende Level und ballert mit Herzchen auf Bulldozer und andere Umweltfrevler.

Die hinterlassen nach Abschuß Bonusfrüchte, die den eigenen Energiehaushalt mal fördern, mal schädigen, genau wie das bereits herumliegende Obst. Aufzüge befördern das Spielersprite in höhere Regionen, Extras verschaffen ihm bessere Wafen und mehr Sprungkraft, Ende Gelände.

Das spielt sich alles noch langweiliger als es sich hier liest, zudem ist am Screen davon so gut wie nichts zu erkennen: Eklige, kaum animierte Digigrafik in häßliche Farben, aber ruckelfreies Parallax-Scrolling - na super!

Top Banana ist nahezu unspielbar, herzlich unoriginell und dank bescheuerter Soundsamples und schräger Titelmusik auch akustisch unerträglich. Fazit: Müllsammeln im Park ist das spannendere und sinnvollere Umweltgame!. (rl)

I wasn't in the best of moods this afternoon, and the last thing I wanted to have thrust at me was a game featuring psychedelic 'acid' graphics, a 'dance' soundtrack, a naïve ecological plot, environmentally-friendly packaging and things that reverse the controls and wobble the screen about when you walk into them.

To rub salt into the wound, Top Banana (for pity's sake...) suggests I use "the power that is Love" to take on the various adversaries it throws at me - i.e. shoot them with heart-shaped bullets.

The game is probably best described as a cross between Rainbow Islands, Flood and the contents of one's stomach after a heavy Italian meal.

It takes Rainbow Islands' vertically-scrolling platform layout and Flood's slowly rising water-level (actually, Rainbow Islands'slowly rising water level, come to that) and implements them in a bilious mixture of confusing graphics and silly sound effects, the object of which is to collect things, shoot things and climb to the top of each level.

If it wasn't all so inconsequential I could have got quite cross with it. Not only is it impossible to see what's going on most of the time (which is probably just as well), but even if you could there wouldn't be much to do. Just collecting, shooting and climbing. You can't make rainbows or anything.

Even setting aside the above list of irritations (even the 'reversing the controls' one - I mean, why not go the full hog and have something that disables the controls altogether, or makes the screen go completely blank, or punches you in the face, pees in your beer and steals your girlfriend?), Top Banana simply fails to make the grade.

Rainbow Islands does it all a hundred times better, and without all this 'acid culture' how-do-you-do.

Strange ain't the word. This has been described by Hex as 'the rave disc', which is basically what it is. If that means anything to you. If not, then, erm... well, it's a combination of acid-style dance music with 'eternal' non-repeating graphics. It's basically a massive PD music demo with a vengeance.

Put together by the team who first hit the news when constructing music videos, under the name Coldcut, for assorted ultra-hip dance acts, this is very much a product of the 'computer punk' generation.

You could see it as appropriating and subverting the multimedia form. If you worked on BBC's The Late Show arts programme, but really it's just a bunch of guys with a pretty decent sense of good music and wild visuals having a bit of fun. And fun it is.

A number of dance tracks are accompanied by weird, flashing patterns, which are semi-randomly generated to give almost endless variation. It's definitely something you could use to give your parties that ravy feel. The music is good enough, the graphics are frantic, which is all it should be.

Thrown in for good measure is Hex's Top Banana game, a Rainbow Islands clone in gameplay, but with a bizarre and original look that results from its 'sampled' graphics, many of which are highly amusing. The game is fun stuff too.

All this adds up to a disc which few enough people will buy, but those who do will enjoy. As artistic expression it should be encouraged.

Die kruse Mischung aus seltsamer Musik, merkwürdigen Grafiken und dem Flop-Game "Top Banana" stellte uns vor arge Probleme. Denn eigentlich gehört die Scheibe ja in unsere Rubrik für CDTV-Konvertierungen, schließlich gibt es die Bananen-Hüpferei bereits auf Disk. Andererseits sind die nun enthaltenen Beigaben derart verblüffend, daß sie auch einen eigenen Test rechtfertigen.

Da wären zunächst mal vier "Hardcore-Techno-Musikstücke mit sich nie wiederholender Rave-Grafik". Wiederholen tut sich dabei wirklich nix, bloß langweilen tut man sich recht schnell, und den Sound dürften auch nur ganz harte Techno-Fans gut finden.

Hinter dem Menüpunkt "Digital Love" verbergen sich vier sanfte Schnulzen, die von noch viel sanfteren Grafiken untermalt werden - Leute mit Schlafstörungen werden begeistert sein! Richtig stressig wird es dagegen bei den "kyberdelischen" Dauer-Animationen von "Eternal Rave", die angeblich besonders für Parties, Nachtclubs etc. Geeignet sind. Stimmt auch, vor allem wegen des Begleitsounds läßt sich dieser Programm-Teil hervorragend als Rausschmeißer benutzen - wenn die Gäste freiwillig gar nicht gehen wollen...

Bliebe noch das "phänomenal originelle, höchst fesselnde, psychedelische Videospiel" "Top Banana". Im April kassierte die eklige Plattform-Arie satte 16 Prozent; diese eh schon schmeichelhafte Bewertung läßt sich hier leider nicht mehr halten, weil die Steuerung mit dem Joypad endgültig zum Fiasko gerät. Noch Fragen? (ms)

Remember Top Banana, that collaboration between dance music producers Cold Cut and programmers Hex? Well here it is again, this time backed up by a collection of nine additional soundtracks.

From the title screen you can choose to play any of the soundtracks, or just go straight into the Top Banana game. There is no difference in the CD and floppy disk versions of the game, so it remains a graphically sickening, simplistic platform affair with silly and often irritating sound effects.

If you can imagine playing Rainbow Islands with half the features missing, and a whole load of corrupt graphics, you have got the general idea.

Completely unconnected to the game are the soundtracks. I was expecting something special when I read the credits on the inlay and discovered for a disappointment. Select the Global Chaos icon, and you get a choice of four tracks. They are all in much the same hardcore style, with random sequences of 'cyberdelic' graphics for a bit of visual stimulation. They are not bad, but nothing more than you would expect from an average PD rave demo.

Digital Love is another selection of four tunes. These are supposed to be ambient, but they are merely slow-moving chord sequences with very simple melodies. Do not expect any powerful hypnotic soundscapes.

Finally there is Eternal Rave. This is a single track with some very messy loops, and loads of sounds that are often both out of time and out of tune with the rest of the track. Unfortunately, unlike the others, the stereo panning here is hard left and right, so listening through headphones is out of the question.

Despite some good ideas, Global Chaos fails to impress.