Audiogenic Software
£10.99/£14.99

Strange games that involve selecting shapes and placing them in cooed positions seem to be all the rage lately. We've had Pipemania, Pick 'N' Pile, Puzznic and now along comes Loopz.

The thing about most of these games is that they're all based around a similar idea so if you've played one you've played them all really. Loopy is very similar to Pipemania without the rush to get a pipe finished before the water flows.

It contains three different game types. Game A is the most basic. All you have to do is create loopz with the assorted playing pieces provided. The higher the level you play, the more points scored; make more than 25 loopz and an extra life is yours. In Game B you still have to make loopz from the pieces but now you have a target score to aim at. Creating a loop that is equal or above the target gives you access to the bonus game.

Game C is the best of the lot. You're shown a shape on-screen and then pieces are removed from it. You have a limited time to place back all the pieces where they should go. If you get it wrong you lose a life and start again (this gets more like The Krypton Factor all the time!). Thankfully a password system is used so you don't have to play the simple ones over and over.

All the games in Loopy play very slickly with lots of shading on the graphics and music running continuously. Three tunes that can be selected on the main menu screen, or you can turn the music off altogether which is a thankful option as it can grate after a while. Playing is a frustrating affair at first, but when you suss out the menu system and select better options than the default selection you start to have some real fun. Loopz is simple but highly addictive and is enjoyable to play. How long your interest will be sustained is another mater - I don't think I'll be playing this in a month's time.

NICK [70%]

Some people may get their kicks from shoving blocks around the computer screen… but sadly my interest in this style of game is wearing thin. Not that this is awful, indeed if you like block puzzle type programs this may be just up your street. The timer adds a certain amount of angst to the proceedings and the graphics, although rather simplistic, do their duty. It's in the playability department that Loopz stumbles, and while it's fun for a while my interest wasn't held for very long.
MARK [72%]

Audiogenic
£10.99/£15.99
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

Puzzle games, eh? (To coin a phrase.) it seems like only months since they were the hippest thing around - remember Tetris? Pipe Mania? Puzznic? Robocop II? (That wasn't a puzzle game, actually. Ed) But in recent weeks the stream has dried to a trickle, and puzzle games look set to be in danger
of going the same way as skateboards, futons, '60's American sitcoms and other unfashionable objects. Luckily, however, Audiogenic have been alerted to
this potential tragedy and they're attempting to save the day with Loopz, a game I happen to have in front of me at this very moment.

It may sound suspiciously like a breakfast cereal or something, but Loopz is an altogether more serious proposition. In traditional puzzle game style
you're presented with a grid of squares. Shapes appear one at a time (like in Tetris) which you must place on the screen within a time limit so they
link up (like in Pipe Mania) to form (you guessed it) 'loopz'. The longer the loop the more points you get.

And that's about it, really. Simplicity is the operative word here - there are no 'special bonuses', 'bonus fruits' or anything else to worry about.
There is a choice of 3 different ways of playing the game, though, one of which has you trying to replace missing bits of 'loopz'. But that's it.
Honest.

The obvious thing to do now would be to unleash a flood of the usual puzzle game reviewing phrases like 'maddeningly addictive' or 'couldn't tear
myself away', but the trouble is that Loopz isn't really all that addictive, I'm afraid. Not enormously so, anyway. And I'm not entirely sure why. It
seems pretty much like any other puzzle game, so one would expect to be hooked to it for hours. But instead it's only averagely addictive. I derived a
moderate amount of enjoyment from it, but had no difficulty in switching it off to watch the weather forecast. Get the idea?

Perhaps if they'd taken a little more trouble over the graphics, and possibly thrown in a few surprises, Loopz would have been another essential puzzle
game purchase. Instead it's a game you might possibly want to invest some left-over pocket money in, especially if you enjoyed its forebears, but not
one that's going to set your underwear alight.

Label: Audiogenic
Memory: 48K.128K
Price: £10.99 Tape, £14.99 Disk
Release: Feb/March
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Abstract game concepts give me a bit of a problem. If it's not got a smart bomb, if it's not an extra life at 10,000 and pressing fire doesn't unleash untold screaming bolts of laser death, then I'm left more than a little dazed and confused. (So what's new Phil?)

Well that's my excuse for sitting in front of the SU Speccy for the first half an hour and trying sixty billion key combinations to get some sort of laser blast whizzing across the screen.

A deft, gentle and caring whack around the bonce accompanied by a the words "It's a puzzle game, spanner face" from SU chief Garth soon got me on the right tracks. Apparently it's a puzzle game, spanner face.

As with all puzzle games that are worth more than a tuppence h'appeny of your lolly, the basic precept is incredibly simple. All you have to do is make loops. Using the input device of your choice (joystick, keyboard or ESP), the idea is to guide bits of stuff comprising of simple blocks around the screen and drop them where they can link up with your previously dropped bits to make up loops. When a loop gets made it gets removed from the play area giving you back some room to make more loops. Sounds easy? Probably exactly what the government though about the poll tax.

If that was all that there was to it then yes, it would be very easy but each block must be dropped within a time limit shown by the timer bar along the bottom of the screen. Take too long and you'll lose a life. Also, the amount of time to drop a block (oo-er) gets less and less the better you become, making for huge adrenalin rushes on the later levels. If the screen gets cluttered up and then you may get a gopher piece which'll zap away any tracks you've made that can't be looped up but the game is a little bit stingy with these.

Also designed to mangle your gray matter into contorted Monster Munch-like shapes is Game C, a puzzle section consisting of fifty conundrums to get you bashing seven shades out of your Speccy. Each puzzle consists of a loop made up from the normal game pieces. After the loop's flashed up onto the screen, bits and bobs of it are removed one by one leaving you to replace all the stuff back where it came from. As you traverse the 50 screens the pace hots up bit by bit until by screen 50 you have to go like the proverbial clappers.

So in the end, despite not having giga-watts of death appeal, despite not having a single smart bomb or mutant alien scumbag in sight.

Puzzle games, usually the only puzzle associated with this genre is "Why did I bother buying this load of old trout?" Well. Much as kind words cause stabbing pains in my larynx, Loopz is what Cyril would term a Nice one'.

Phillip Fisch.

GARTH'S COMMENT:
Loopz is unfortunately one of those games that I find boring. Who wants to make loopz anyway? What's the point? The point is - if you enjoy games like Pipemania then you like this.