Producer: Games Machine
Memory Required: 16K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: David Hay

Despite a story about Doctor van Winkelhoff who has genetically engineered snails imported from West Africa into a breed of Supersnails who leave super glue trails behind them, and are now trapped in his laboratory trying to escape, this game turns out to be a 'Light Cycle' grid type game made famous by the movie Tron.

The aim of the game is to trap your opponent and kill him or her off by forcing him into a wall, your trail or his own trail. If you succeed in this, a hole opens up in the wall and allows you to escape. There are four directional controls for your snail, and in common with other games like it, hitting reverse of the direction in which you are currently travelling is instant death.

COMMENTS

Control keys: player one, Q/A up/down, Z/X left/right: player two, P/L up/down, M/SYM SHIFT left/right
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: very responsive
Colour: sparse!
Graphics: extremely simple but very fast
Sound: continuous but poor
Skill levels: 9 speeds
Features: 1 or 2 players against each other or the computer

The thing that most impressed me about this game is that two players can play against each other at the same time, or two players can play against the computer as well as one player against the computer. The inlay card explains all this very well, and it is repeated in menu form on screen. It is a simple idea, but that makes it all the more playable on the lower speeds. At the highest level the speed makes it unplayable!

This game has the most simple graphics I have ever seen - just white lines on a blue ground. It's simple but it is highly addictive.

If you buy games as much for their colour and graphics (as anything else) then you may as well forget Supersnails. If, on the other hand, you enjoy a fast, utterly single-minded game, then this is about the best version around. The lines move extremely smoothly (only pixels after all) and I think I 'm right in saying that this is the only 8-directional version, which opens up the game's tactics quite a bit.

Snails are being bred in a laboratory and two of them escape one of which is controlled by the player. As they move they leave a trail of Super Glue. And it's your task to trap the other snail, at the same time avoiding your own trail and that of the fellow escapee - all in an effort to avoid a sticky end.

Mark: The speed of this game, which can be selected by the player, ranges from very fast to unplayable. The graphics are almost non-existent... even the snail is only one pixel big. 6/10

John: Use of colour is fairly dull, with the screen starting off about 80 per cent blue and two white snails leaving two white trails as they go. 5/10

Tony: The speed ranges from fast to ridiculous; it's virtually unplayable, and made worse by the two-colour screen and the distinct lack of graphics. 4/10

Producer: Games Machine, 16K
£5.95 (2)
Author: David Hay

There's a crazy story about a Doctor Winkelhoff who is keeping giant supersnails in his lab, which want to get out, and they leave superglue trails behind them, but what we have here is a TRON-style grid game. Therefore the graphics are extremely simple, although extremely fast. The idea is to trap your opponent against the wall, his trail or your trail. If you succeed a door in the wall opens up and lets you escape. The two features in this game which make it a worthwhile addition to the grid collection (of what are now rather old games in themselves) is that it allows the use of 8 directons instead of the usual 4, which opens the potential of the game up enormously and the game allows 1 or 2 players to play against the computer as well as against each other. Sensible control keys, joystick: Kempston, 9 speeds, addictive. Overall CRASH rating 63% m/c.