Producer: Sparklers
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Phil Snell

Danger Mouse is taking a well-earned holiday down in Cheddar Gorge in the sunny West Country. It should be a nice quiet holiday as he's on his own without the bespectaled and easily startled Penfold, but despite the beautiful countryside, DM is finding it hard to relax. Even the famous Cheddar Cheese Straws can't put his mind at rest.

Eventually his worst fears are confirmed: a telegram from Colonel K tells him that Baron Greenback is up to his dastardly tricks again. Poor little Penfold has been kidnapped by the Baron's henchmen. But's that's just the tip of the iceberg. The grotesque Greenback has come up with his worst plan ever for ultimate World Domination...

At his hideout in Chicago. the Baron and his minions are busy manufacturing thousands of Whoopee cushions. Strange. But there is method behind this madness. The plan is to put them on every seat in the United Nations. So at the next meeting there will be so many blushes and apologies in every language imaginable that during the ensuing chaos Greenback will be able to sneak in and take over the world.

Danger Mouse casts aside his packet of Cheese straws and sets off for Chicago. Quite apart from the Baron's sinister whoopee cushion factory, a number of gas making factories and power stations must be shut down as they supply the Baron with power and materials for cushion factory. If DM manages to shut down enough of these factories, when he eventually gets through to the Whoopee cushion plant he'll find it a lot easier to burst the cushions with the P.I.N (Pointed Imploding Needle) because there will be less of them.

The screen shows a three dimensional view of Danger Mouse in his car as he battles around the city looking for clues. The bottom half of the screen shows the layout of the city with DM's position marked, along with obstacles such as the Troll with no Plaice to go, who only moves out of your way if you give him a fish. Gedditt? Useful objects can be found by visiting store rooms. Walking through the unmarked doors in the store rooms, DM must try and navigate his way to the blue exit at the top of the screen. When he gets to this stage, a useful object is offered to him.

When DM finds one of the baron's factories he must avoid whatever is being manufactured there and get to the top of the screen to the exit door in much the same way as he did in the store rooms. Then it's back into the car and off somewhere else.

While Danger Mouse is hunting around the city looking for clues, the Baron is making more and more cushions. When the number gets to 100 the game ends and Greenback has triumphed. The number of whoopee cushions trundling off the production line is shown at the bottom of the screen along with any bonus marks.

COMMENTS

Control keys: O left. P right, Q up, A reverse direction/down, 0 fire/jump, 1 status screen, 2 continue game, 5 abandon game
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: fine, but a bit tricky controlling the car
Use of colour: par for the budget course
Graphics: nothing remarkable
Sound: jolly tune, fair effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: scrolling maze

Danger Mouse games could be really good as he is an extremely versatile character, unfortunately he doesn't seem to have been used to his greatest effect or ability yet, and all the games in which he has starred have been a bit on the boring side. Controlling Danger Mouse's car is at first very hard to get used to, so it is easy to get lost in the maze. The game plays quite slowly and once you've seen a few screens there is little variation, and boredom sets in. The graphics are colourful but there are a lot of attribute problems. The sound is fairly good with some nice spot effects in the game, and the Danger Mouse theme tune on the title screen. Not a bad piece of cheapo software - it would be nice if it was a little more compelling.

For £1.99, this is a fair game. If it had been priced any higher, there's no way that I would have said anything nice about it. The graphics are not particularly good, but they give the right impression. Playability wise, DM is good, but nothing special. Despite the different screens, it doesn't hold much in the way of interesting action. For the price, worth a look, methinks.

Yes, we all know that Danger Mouse is great: I love the TV series and all that stuff. The look of DMMW is very good, and a valid attempt is made at drawing a believable road. Danger Mouse turns the corners in the road in a very realistic fashion, and is drawn very accurately and animated beautifully, even down to the odd glance around while playing. After the appeal of the game had worn off, I couldn't see much more than a basic maze game- which made me understand why it was only £1.99. The sound on the title screen is an extremely loud and accurate rendition of the DM theme tune, this and the DM character were the only pulling points of the game. I couldn't find much else to validate the lashing out of nearly two hundred pennies.

Sparklers
£1.99

Typical. Danger Mouse looking forward to his holiday, and just as he was really settling down to it, it happened. A telegram from Colonel K, saying that the pernicious Baron Greenback had kidnapped Penfold. Not only that but the evil toad was planning his next step on the road to world domination - the Whoopee Cushion. Well, millions of whoopee cushions.... Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to foil his dastardly plot, and rescue Penfold.

There are two parts to this game, the 3D maze and the platform. You drive your Mousemobile around town, seeking out warehouses wherein you can find pieces of rubbish to buy off the characters blocking your path. A coin for the Toll Troll, a fish for the Troll With No Plaice Of His Own, a hand for the Clock With One Hand, and so forth. Slowly you progress through the maze, seeking the gas factories and electricity stations that power the Baron's Whoopee Works. Then finally you discover the secret location of the Works itself.

if you enjoy Danger Mouse, or even if you don't, you'll enjoy playing Making Whoopee. The graphics and sound are really quite exciting, especially as this game is so cheap! The 3D maze sequence is a real beaut. You see the world over DM's shoulder, and the animation of the maze is very realistic, very solid and very fast. (That's a lotta verys.) DM has pretty animated animation too - when you don't do anything for a few seconds he looks over his shoulder at you with one of those 'blimmin well git on with it!' expressions. When you find a storeroom by following the map, the game moves into a 2D platform phase. You must jump, climb, run and dodge all the bubbles to equip yourself to get past the obstacles in the maze.

As an arcade adventure Making Whoopee is a right little cracker (sparkler?), and deserves to bubble right to the top of the charts.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Sparklers/CSD
PRICE: £1.99

Dangermouse could be a great computer game star. Unfortunately none of the games released with his name attached has matched up to the potential of the character.

Making Whoopee is no exception. It's a pretty basic arcade adventure maze game with some platform screens thrown in for good measure. A nice idea which doesn't quite work.

The scenario is that Penfold, DM's faithful sidekick, has been kidnapped by the evil Baron Greenback who is out to disrupt the United Nations by making enough whoopee cushions to fill all the seats in time for the next congress meeting. He hopes the cushions will create such confusion that his plan to take over the world will work.

The first screen of the game shows DM in his car at the top and a plan view of the maze-like streets below. Controlling DM's car is difficult to say the least. You must aim for the dead ends where you'll find entrances to the platform screens which, when successfully completed, yield a useful object which DM can carry back to his car and use to get past an obstacle in the streets.

Graphics are average, sound the same and game play basically frustrating. Nice idea shame about the game.