Suddenly discovering you've got a brain cell at the grand old age of 23 comes as a bit of a shock to anyone. Big Al Green was so gobsmacked by his discovery he walked straight into a wall! Since then he's been seeing double so we dared him to write this review (ho ho).

Alternative Software
£3.99

It's good news for all you Going Live! fans out there. No, It's not a chance to drool over Sarah (no relation) Green or Philip Schofield (phwoar! - Ed) but a Speccy version of that wacky TV quiz, Double Dare. Presented by zany Peter Simon (don't mention the ring doughnuts - what a dick!), this is the brain-strain game where you end up hot, sticky and very, very GREEN (whizzo! an environmentally friendly game - Ed).

Definitely not for the dim-witted (that rules out the CRASH team - Ed), if you get an answer wrong it's green gunge galore all over your pretty little bonce. But if you're one of those weirdos who can't get enough of this sort of thing, get stuck in from the slime-free safety of your armchair.

CELEB SQUARES

As on TV, two teams battle it out in a trivia quiz, but here you take on a mate or the computer. Each multiple choice (/guess) question's directed to one team at a time. If you're a right royal thicko and can't answer, 'Dare' it over to the other team. If they're equally brain-dead they can 'Double Dare' it back. Then either come up with the answer quick for loadsa points or down comes the green gunge and you face one of three challenges!

First up there's a moving square picture puzzle (of Jason Donovan and other 'great'stars from the world of pop), the second a 'Simon'-style pattern-following game, and finally a kind of computerised thought puzzle of the kind Oriental monks supposedly sit and play for years on end. Each is a little game in its own right.

The questions are of the classic 'Which star of Coronation St...?', 'Which great sportsman…?' variety, all with a selection of inspired answers. Questions repeat themselves before long but there's more to load in and an unlimited time to answer them, so you could even pop down to the local library to figure out the trickier ones!

The winning team go on to part two - the assault course. The arcade-style action takes you across several screens in search of ten flags, avoiding vast tanks of gunge on the way. It's a simple platform game with a bit of thought and strategy thrown in.

Your man's very difficult to control and there's not a lot in the graphics or gameplay to keep your interest for long. It's more or less a case of getting from one side of the screen to the other using the rollers, platforms and so on, collecting flags where appropriate (often trickier than it appears).

A nice touch in the quiz section are the changing expressions of the contestants who grimace and smile appropriately, while Mr Simon's jaw rattles up and down as the questions are revealed.

There's nothing special about this game, but for a budget price it 'll give die-hard Double Dare fans a giggle or two.

ALAN [60%]

There can't be anyone out there who hasn't seen Peter Simon's ramblings on Going Live! every Saturday morning. Isn't he an annoying bloke? No wonder the kids cover him in slime every week! The idea behind the programme's great, though, and makes an addictive computer game thanks to Bizarre 'Did you spill my pint?' Developments. The quiz section's a little slow, text printed one character at a time, but this gives the player a chance to get their brain into gear (and lets face it, Nick needs to - Ed). It's the challenge and assault course sections that make the game, of varying difficulty to appeal to all ages. The assault course is excellent - grabbing chickens by the bum to find a flag and falling into vats of green gunge is my idea of fun (maybe you should see a doctor, Nick - Ed)! Double Dare's a playable mixture of quiz and arcade styles and well worth the dosh.
NICK [76%]

Alternative
£3.99 cass
0977 797 777
Reviewer: Andy Hutchinson

When I was twelve years old, my best friend made a bet with me. He reckoned that I didn't have the bottle to run away to Australia. Being an honourable (stupid) schoolboy I took my friend up on his offer and, during morning break, set off out of the school gates. I made it as far as the other side of town before getting completely disillusioned with the whole idea. Therefore I turned around and wearily wandered back to school. Unfortunately I'd missed double religion and Mouldy Matthews (the teacher) put me on detention for a whole week for skiving off. All of which just goes to show you what crap things dares are.

Double Dares however are wonderful things. You see, they enable you to throw a silly dare back on someone so that they end up looking stoopid and you get to eat you crab paste sarnies in peace. All of which leads us along quite nicely (and why not) to Double Dare, the Speccy version of a quiz which takes place during Going Live on Beeb One.

GRANARY BAPS ANYONE?

Ermm, no thanks I'll go for the baguette as usual please. Anyway, Double Dare is a quiz game. You can play either another person or the computer. The idea is to answer questions successfully. These come in the farm of multiple choice questions, in which you have three choices. However, there's some extra skill involved in this game. If you think that your opponent can't answer the question then double dare them, then if they answer incorrectly, you get double the points. If they get it right, then they get the bonus. (Is that it? Linda)

Not really no, you see, they can still throw the dare back at you, even before they answer, a kind of triple dare. At this juncture you can choose to either answer the question or take a challenge. These challenges test your mental agility by setting three types of test.

Place the Face is the first challenge you'll encounter. The idea of this is to re-arrange a famous face. This isn't as naughty as it sounds, you see it's like one of those plastic puzzles where you have to shuffle blocks around, or to draw a more modern analogy, like the Spitting Image game.

The second challenge is called Follow the Leader. The idea of this is rather like those crap 'electronic' games from the early eighties where this round thing would beep out noises and colours in a certain order and you had to repeat it (You don't mean Simon do you? Linda) Ermm, yes that's the one, but this version's a lot easier as it only has six levels.

If you're unfortunate enough to get three challenges then you'll be faced with the Pyramid Power game. Here the idea is to transfer different coloured discs (arranged in descending order of size) across three pegs making sure that they're in the nght order when they get to their new peg. If it sounds confusing then try completing it on your Speccy!

MORE SPLEEN MR BILLINGTON?

No thank you Marjorie, I'm in the middle of a review. Where were we? Right, so Double Dare's a kind of Trivial Pursuit without a board and with a few penalty clauses built in. It's actually jolly easy to play. The computer asks you a question and you either answer it or dare someone. Even James (God rest his soul) could have handled this.

The graphics are lovely, cheery and thoroughly suplex-duplex; the crap presenter of the show wobbles his jaw as the quest is read out and your pixel team does a little victory 'hurrah' whenever they get a question right. The challenges look gnarly too, loads of colour and some thoughtful use of the odd colour clash.

Here's a nice little game. Nice in the way that your mum might say it, generally alluding to its wholesome qualities. I mean lets face it, you don't get to kill or otherwise injure anyone in this game, not even the odd put-upon alien. Nope, it's cerebral, fun and very much a 90s game. The aliens are dead, long live the brain.

Label: Alternative Software
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Big Al Dykes

When was the song 'Going Underground' by The Jam released? What sport does Harvey Smith specialise in? If your answers to these questions are, 'Yes please, and I'll have some clotted cream on my scones too!" and "Harvey Smith is a world famous gun-slinger!", then Double Dare might not be the game for you.

However if you can answer these questions correctly then please accept an SU commendation of supreme knowledge, and if you're a fan of the television program on which this game is based, then why not splurge out, and get this game!

Double Dare is a quiz show which hits the screens every Saturday morning on 'Going Live', a program which I've never actually seen as most mornings I can be seen 'Going Dead' until about 11.45am (Thank God and Sony for the video recorder).

The game's catch is that participants don't just answer questions, (they're just sooo difficult sometimes) they must also gamble, participate in puzzle challenges and finally, the winning team must complete a hazardous obstacle course (sounds a little like trying to get a cup of coffee made by Tina) and collect ten flags. The worst thing about the obstacle course is that you're not only competing against time but also the course is specifically designed to make you fall head over heels into gunge tanks - huge slimy vessels filled to the brim with yukky muck. (Icchh!! Sounds like Tina's coffee too).

The quiz part is entertaining and certainly very competitive, however some of the questions seem to be geared towards older people (Who won the Cairo Cup final in 23 BC? Answer: The Roman Army). None are too difficult though and as the answers are given as multiple guess options you can guess if you want. The challenges, all puzzles, are difficult at first, but fun.

The graphics aren't dashingly good looking but they get the job done, (like Garth), and overall the game is very playable and easy to understand. Unfortunately there are only two sets of questions available on this cassette which will drastically shorten Double Dare's lastability which is a pity 'cos it is quite faithful to the TV program and will appeal to all TV trivia fans.

GARTH:
I really don't like this - I'm not sure if it's because I hate the TV program or because I always find it ridiculous to play trivia games against a computer opponent. Luckily you can play against other players to liven it up, but the TV show formula really makes the game too tedious for me.