Producer: Micromania
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Dominic Wood, JPW

Kosmic Kanga is an entirely novel game for the Spectrum by Dominic Wood who brought us Tutankhamun, Pengy and one of the best simple shoot em ups for the Stack Light Rifle, Invasion Force. All our reviewers agreed that this is not only a very original game, but also the best yet from Micromania.

At the outset, we must point out that there aren't as many screens as were suggested in our competition earlier, the main reason being that in putting the original concept together as a completed program, Micromania felt that it was getting too unwieldy and spoiling the playability.

The basic object of the game is to guide Kanga home, back to his base on the Moon. This takes him through eleven different screens; the Airport, the Desert, a bonus screen, the Ocean, Atlantis, a bonus screen, the Beach, the Country, a bonus screen, the City and finally the Moon. Each of the main screens is actually a very large playing area since they scroll from right to left for quite some time. Before each screen starts there is a status panel informing you of the nature of the enemies ahead and the objects to be collected, played to the tune of Tie me Kangaroo Down Sport. The bonus screens are only a screen wide, but they are designed to scroll vertically and so are quite high in total playing area.

Kanga is controlled by his jumping. He can be moved left or right as far as the scrolling screen will allow, but there is considerable manoeuvring possible by making higher or lower jumps. Points are gained by collecting objects which may be on the ground, floating on clouds or on the backs of whales in the sea, they may be on the tops of tall buildings. Some objects are dangerous, like bombs, but the biggest danger comes from the various deadly objects which fly along with the screen scroll. For his protection, Kanga can do what Kangaroos have always done, hurl boxing gloves at his enemies. All the playing screens are shown in the excellent demo.

COMMENTS

Control keys: N/M left/right, increase jump = A, decrease height = Z, remaining keys on bottom row to throw a glove
Joystick: Kempston, ZX 2, Protek, AGF
Keyboard play: responsive, one reviewer thought they were all a little low down the keyboard
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: very good and varied, quite large
Sound: good tune, nice effects, not continuous
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 4
Screens: 11 with much greater playing area
Originality: highly original

Kosmic Kanga is a really original game. The graphics are very good. So too is the playability. Generally I enjoyed this game enough to consider it a contender for a game of the month. The bouncing is a little difficult to co-ordinate at first, but with a little practice it soon becomes more predictable. Graphics are varied, detailed, smooth moving, and everything goes along well in what is a very good game.

The finish on Kosmic Kanga is good - lots of small details been used to add to playability. Each little pre-screen intro which warns you of what you are about to face, is a little gem in itself, fully animated bright lights effect the tune, and all the items listed dancing in animation to it. I also liked the small Kangas at the base of the screen which tell you how many men you have left. When a new life starts the screen Kanga appears from the top down as though materialised from all his atoms, and dies in reverse - so too do the small Kangas for that 'life'. Bouncing becomes quite an art once you get the hang of it. Moving left or right only works when you touch the ground, so the skill required to get through even one screen, let alone all eleven, is quite high. The graphics are excellent, all recognisable and very well drawn. Although there is little real animation as such, this doesn't matter because of the scrolling screen. I found the game playable and fun, and very addictive, because you do want to get on and see how far you can go and what comes next (the demo invariably falls to get very far into a screen).

Micromania are right - this is a totally original game, although I am sure I have seen a game for another machine or something in the arcade which has a boxing kangaroo in it, but not like this one anyway. There are many good looking sections to the game each requiring its own skill level and tactics. The way that Kanga bounces is very good even though he isn't really animated. Graphics are detailed, colourful and move quickly and smoothly. A cheerful, tuneful sort of game with a certain bounce to it!

Kosmic Kanga was a CRASH Smash in issue 7, but there is very little point doing more than to recall it since Micromania inconveniently went bust a couple of weeks ago, and at the moment we don't know the availability of their programs, including the recent Project Future.

ROO LACKS PUNCH

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: AGF, Protek, Kempston, Sinclair

Micromania has raided the zoo again for ideas for its new game Kosmic Kanga. In it you control a Kangaroo, that moves along a scrolling landscape. By controlling the height of its bounces you can pick up objects and points, and try to avoid low-flying planes and ducks. To help you in that you can throw the traditional kangaroo boxing gloves at them.

The action is smooth and all the sprites large and colourful. Controlling the kangaroo is rather haphazard and consequently zapping anything becomes a matter of luck as well as skill. When the sprites meet the colours clash very badly. Of 11 screens eight are the samc with different sprites for variety.

All in all the game holds your attention for an hour or so but after that the interest wanes. There are many arcade games for the Spectrum, some good and some bad. At best this one is average. Nice graphics, shame about the game.

MAKER: Micromania
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £5.95

After much beating about the bush, Micromania have finally delivered. Following a handful of passable (but unexciting) arcade conversions they've produced their own original game - and it's a winner! In it you must help Kanga, an alien Kangaroo, phone home. This involves leaping tall buildings (amongst other things) with a single bound and avoiding all manner of obstacles in the ensuing scenarios. These include an airport, where trucks and planes do their best to trundle over you; the ocean, where here crabs and squids lurk with deadly intent; through Atlantis, across a beach and then into the countryside. It's quite a journey!

Thankfully you needn't rely on agility alone. When confronted by a deadly beach buggy (or similar) Kanga can unleash a flying boxing glove. Quite a potent weapon! I managed to hop through the airport without too much trouble, but those snappy crabs got me every time.

The large cartoon graphics are excellent and Kosmic Kanga displays enough invention to disguise it's obvious Jet-Pac origins. It's also delightfully addictive. After 30 minutes of abject screen failure, I dug out my Kempston 'stick and found both success and motivation. After that there was no escape! The CBM can keep its mutant camels. Kangaroos are far more classy.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Curs, Sinc
FROM: Micromania, £5.95

A kangaroo... from space? Surely not. But there it was, bouncing around the moon in search of its spaceship.

Kanga sets out from the Earth and has to bounce his way from screen to screen to journey to the moon. You bounce automatically and can jump higher or lower and backwards or forwards.

Kanga starts at an airport and must get across it as it scrolls from right to left. On the way he can pick up bonus points by passing through bags, bottles and other airport paraphernalia. These can be on the ground, on the tops of buildings or suspended in the air on floating platforms.

Meanwhile bombs, ambulances and aircraft must be avoided since they can interrupt him in mid-hop, costing a life in the process. The bombs must be carefully watched for since they can appear on platforms in place of bonus items.

Most obstacles can be dealt with by firing boxing gloves at them. However bombs can't be 'knocked out' like this.

If Kanga manages to survive his airport ordeal then he can proceed to further screens. These screens all follow the same pattern as the first but the other characters are changed.

Every third screen is a platform screen where the usual opposition have been replaced by a bouncing ball which is just as lethal.

If Kanga can get through the desert, ocean and other earthly hazards he'll eventually reach the moon and his spaceship.

Like Poo-Yan, another game with a surreal scenario, I don't think it'll lead to a flood of imitations but as a one-off it's a very enjoyable game.