The Edge
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Jackie Ryan

He's back (back, back!). After a wait of nearly two years everyone's fave fat cat, Garfield, has returned to our mean machines, complete with florescent C&A ski-wear (a bit like Matt's actually). Yus, cue Ski Sunday 'muzak' 'cos in Garf's latest arcade-adventure-style game he's off down the piste in search of the abominable Chicken That Lays The Chocolate Eggs. Hem.

Actually, this chicken is all part of a dream that our fave feline is having. It's rather a weird dream, but since it forms the basic scenario of the game here it is. The chicken is holed up somewhere amongst the snow-capped mountains and frozen lakes of the Alps, so Garf, along with side-kick Odie, decides to set out to find it.

At the beginning of the game out hero's seen snoozing in front of a half empty fridge. Three suitably frozen scenes from his dream can be seen in the thought bubble above his head. By using the controls you can toggle between the four different scenes and pick which one you want to enter first. Complete each of these sub-games and you get to finish the game.

The first one you see is the ski slope. Here Garfield has to ski down the vertically-downward-scrolling screen, weaving in and out of obstacles, leaping over ramps and picking up food to maintain his energy, while all the time trying to avoid Odie who's out to demolish the food before he can. His aim is to reach the bottom of the slope and jump the big ramp before his energy runs out.

Sounds tricky, eh? Well, unfortunately, it isn't! The scrolling is slow and the hill is just too easy to get down. The objects can quite easily be avoided, the ramps are too simple to jump and, as long as you ski close to the right-hand side of the screen, scoffing enough food to keep your energy up until you get to the bottom is no problem. Ho hum.

Anyway, complete this section and its off to the piste and into the lasagne factory (which just happens to be at the bottom of the hill) for a quick left-right-left-right-pummelling-the-keyboard-type nosh-up. Get Garfield to eat as much as he can and then it's over to the chocolate factory to make sure the chickens are getting enough Cream Eggs! To complete this flip-screen scrolling section you must pad through the factory, redirecting the liquid chocolate along the pipes to the chickens. You do this by first finding out where the chickens are then by traipsing back through the factory and flicking the switches you find near the arrows that show you which way the chocolate is flowing in the pipe. You'll need to get out your mapping pen to complete this bit, but since the chocolate factory is only about four screens high and 15 screens wide it won't take you too long. This section might be more of a puzzler than the previous two, but the trouble is it's not big or varied enough to keep you interested. Oh well, on to the skating.

This is the final section of the game and so the last bit of Garfield's dream. He can actually see the tracks of the Chicken That Lays The Chocolate Eggs now, but following them and finding the nosh is a different matter. The frozen lake is actually a big horizontally and vertically scrolling maze which Garfield has to skate his way out of - avoiding the cracks in the ice, picking up the food, well, you know the kind of thing.

And that's the basic trouble with Garfield - Winter's Tail. Although there are four different games in here there's an odd kind of similarity about each one. Each section is too unaddictive, small and slow. Mind you, the graphics are a different tin of pilchards - even though the proceedings are in monochrome, Garfield and Odie have been drawn perfectly, and some of the expressions Garfield pulls are actually quite funny. But that ain't enough to save it. No, I think I'd rather sit down with a copy of ol' Bill's A Winter's Tale than this.

Label: The Edge
Author: In-house
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Alison Skeat

Pah, that Garfield, he's a boy inny? Chomping up Fern trees one minute and booting Odie up the bot the next, he just doesn't care does he? He certainly makes me chortle me socks off 'cos he's a right little devil. I love him to bits.

Well I did love him before The Edge decided to stuff him inside the Speccy and attempt to make a game out of him. Now, unfortunately I find him rather nauseating. I was really looking forward to this one, but blimey what a disappointment.

The first screen of this 'adventure' finds Garfy having a snooze in his box in John's kitchen. Above his head is a think bubble. Click the joystick to change the view inside the bubble. There are three views in all. First, there's the chocolate factory, second is the ski-slope and thirdly is the skating lake.

Garfield can take a visit to any of these three venues. So first he nips off to the skating lake. Here he has to skish about jumping over snow banks and around all the objects sitting on the ice (why there are objects on the ice is anybody's guess).

He must try to stay on his feet because if he slips over he'll lose energy. Loss of energy is indicated by a Garfield head in the left hand corner of the screen, which slowly sinks down as energy drops. It drops so slowly in fact, it's hardly noticeable.

His main object is to scramble across the ice from one side of the lake to the other. Sounds easy? Well let me tell you, it bloody well isn't. Maybe I'm crap at games but I found it almost impossible to keep poor Garfy under control. Anyway, on to the next bit, the chocolate factory.

In the factory there are these chickens, see. and they eat chocolate which whooshes around the pipes of the factory. Garfield has to move the choccy in the right direction through the pipes to reach these choccy munching chickens. There are arrows on the pipes which Garfy can change around by jumping up and pushing a button. There are bits of food lying around on the floor which Garfy can eat to build up his strength, but beware of Odie, for he is running around stealing the grub and therefore sapping you of energy. You can actually boot him up the bum, but I'm warning you it doesn't make much difference as he keeps coming back to bug you.

I found this level pretty annoying because Garfield seems to walk soooooo slowly. You're sitting there shouting, "faster, go faster Garfy for gawd's sake" and wiggling your joystick like a loon. Oh, I've had enough of this part of the game, what's next?

Oh yes, the ski-slope. This was about the best level of all. Garfield skishes down a snowy hill like a moggie possessed. Dotted about the hill are snow covered ramps and logs. He has to jump these or swerve around them. There are lads standing on either edge of the slope holding out pieces of pie. Garfy has to jump up with his mouth open as he passes to nab the pie to build up his strength.

Odie accompanies Garfield down the slope on what looks like an upside down dustbin lid, but I don't really understand why he's there because he doesn't aid Garfield in any way.

The thing that bugged me overall about this game is that you don't seem to have to accumulate points, no score appears at the bottom of the screen, and it seems to take weeks for your energy to run out. That aside, I thought the graphics were really brilliant, with both the Garfield and Odie characters staying true to the original cartoon.

I really wanted to like this game. The basic idea is fine, but it's just too slow and frankly not very interesting. There's more chance of me being knighted than getting addicted to Garfield Winter's Tale.