RICH PELLEY and JON PILLAR - as nice of couple of young chaps as you could ever hope to meet. So we locked them up in the...

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Hi-Tec
£2.99
Reviewer: Jon Pillar

Two games in one pack and the weirdest plots I've ever read. In Cauldron you play a witch out to kill the Pumpking. And in Cauldron II you're a pumpkin out to kill the witch for revenge. (I dunno. Why not just leave well alone in the first place?)
Cauldron is now so old it reminisces about the good old days. As the witch you have to flit about the horizontally-scrolling countryside searching for keys fiendishly hidden amid the scenery, then find the doors they unlock. Once inside, the action switches to a platform game as you try to grab the vital ingredients for the pumpkin-squashing spell. Of course, in both cases there are billions of creepy nasties out to get you. Flickery sprites, feeble sound - it's all incredibly hard (but spookily addictive).

Cauldron II is much newer, sparkles technically, and is very sarcastic. It's the famous Bouncing Pumpkin game - instead of normal controls you have to vary the height of the bounce as you try to leap your way through the witch's castle. This causes more strangled shouts than a Welsh phrasebook, as in inexperienced hands the pumpkin frequently ricochets off furniture. (And when I play it it looks like a pinball game.) But it keeps you trying.

If you're an ace gamester, this is a boffo barg. But I think I'll stick to Guardian II - at least that doesn't laugh at me when I make a mistake. Sob.