Producer: Gremlin Graphics
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Chris Kerry

Sequels being all the rage lately, it is important at the outset to say that Monty is Innocent is not a sequel to Wanted: Monty Mole. The game is entirely different in look and style and features a new hero, Sam Stoat. So what's the connection with poor old Monty? After stealing a bucket of coal and getting caught by Arthur's flying pickets, Monty has been imprisoned for five years in HM Scudmore along with murderers and arsonists. But on the outside, powerful friends are working to free him, among them Monty's best friend Sam Stoat. The object of the game is guide Sam around the halls, corridors, tunnels and exercise yards of Scudmore in search of the Governor's office and the eight keys that will open the eight doors to get to Monty.

Monty is Innocent is not a platform-style game like its predecessor, but a linked multi-screen 3D maze type which uses solid, brightly coloured graphics to draw the locations. It isn't proper 3D despite the perspective drawings but relies on the drawn spaces to define near and far away, rather like some of the Thor games. This is not, perhaps, very surprising as Chris Kerry the author is the same Chris Kerry who did Jack and the Beanstalk etc. Keys can be picked up from inside the Governor's office safe and used by Sam, and it is one of those games that requires learning the layout to get around quickly, because Sam needs to constantly return to the Governor's office for more keys.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/W left/right, O/K up/down, P to pick up keys
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair 2
Keyboard play: slightly odd combination, but it works well and response is good
Use of colour: colour plays an important part as it defines the 3D effect - drawback is with the attribute problem at times
Graphics: moving characters are neat and detailed with reasonable animation
Sound: good tune between games, spot effects
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 4
Screens: 48

After enjoying Monty Mole I was rather disappointed with Potty Pigeon, but Monty is Innocent is great. It's really colourful and although the graphic movement is not ultrasmooth, it's okay. The locations are well laid out and due to the differences of each location you soon begin to know your way around. Frustrations such as solitary confinement tend to ensure that you only make such mistakes but once! On some occasions I found Sam's movement a little dodgy but this added to the difficulty, so who cares? Perhaps a little of the scenery could have been used as game play memory space, but this may have spoilt the atmosphere, so maybe I should just shut up and give an opinion - very good.

The differences between this game and their previous ones are that the graphics are much more detailed and jazzed up. There are quite a few 3D type scenes which work very well, but on the whole they don't add anything to the game. The game itself seemed quite big at first and indeed you can be exploring for quite a while. But it does become apparent that there is no need to wonder around the entire prison complex to be able to release Monty. In fact there are only a handful of screens that you need to play with. There doesn't seem much actual gaming element in Monty is Innocent, although you do consistently get killed off. But other than avoiding the inmates of the prison and finding the right key, there isn't a tot else to it - it doesn't, for instance, require the arcade skills that were so essential in the previous Monty game. Nice graphics, shame about the game.

MONTY IS INNOCENT
Gremlin Graphics
Memory: 48K
Price: £6.95
Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston

In the archives of the most notorious prison escapes is the story of one, Monty Mole, who was slammed in the jug for borrowing a bucket of coal one cold night to warm his frozen paws.

"Monty is innocent", thought Sam Stoat and so he decided to arrange his best friend's escape.

Sam scaled the high walls of Scudmore Prison and went to sniff out Monty. Had he known of the horrors in wait he would not have set out on his mad caper, for guarding Scudmore were mad axemen, walking skulls and ghosts of past inmates.

Once inside, Sam set off to find the Governor's office where the keys to the cells were hidden. Finding the safe he picked a likely key and scampered towards the cells. More frustration followed as Sam could carry only one key and had to return for another each time he opened a cell.

The prison was a labyrinth, with some rooms to be avoided at all costs - solitary confinement cells from whose confines death was the only escape.

Eventually he found the armoury and, now armed, he despatched many guards to their graves. There was also the phenomenon of the potion, which rendered Sam invisible.

Afterwards he confessed that he got very worried when his stomach or head disappeared, which happened every time he ran into one or two of the nasties - the surroundings flickered and merged and lost all their colour and definition. Despite that, he recommended the escapade to all would-be gaol-breakers as a pleasant way of spending a harrowing few hours.

MACHINE: Spectrum/keyboard or joystick
SUPPLIER: Gremlin Graphics
PRICE: £6.95

The adventures of Monty Mole continue in Gremlin's latest release - which also features a new hero, Sam Stoat, star of his own Gremlin game.

Here, however, Sam is out to help his mate Monty who has been sent to spend some time among the low life of Scudmore Prison for an act no more dastardly than borrowing a bucket of coal.

Sam has to collect keys from the Governor's office and explore the cells of the prison in order to help Monty escape.

Monty is Innocent is a novel mixture of maze and arcade adventure games with a few platforms style screens thrown in.

Graphics are colourful and the characters well animated - but I didn't find the game met the high standard set by Monty's first release.

Having said that, Gremlin are building up a nice set of computer characters - I'll be waiting the further exploits of Monty Mole and Sam Stoat with interest.

PRICE: £6.95
GAME TYPE: Arcade

Breathe it softly in games circles, Sinclair Programs was not impressed by Monty Mole. Nevertheless, the charts showed that everyone disagreed with us, and so we were ready to find signs of excellence in the follow up, Monty is Innocent, which had gone unnoticed in Monty Mole.

By the beginning of Monty is innocent, Monty is incarcerated for life in a huge prison for liberating a bucket of coal from a coal mine. His friend, Sam Stoat, following his conscience rather than the letter of the law, has decided to break into the prison and free him.

This is where you come in. As Sam Stoat, you must break into the prison, move through a variety of three-dimensionally presented screens, fend off a series of opponents such as skulls and reporters by shooting them, collect keys and try them in cell doors until you have freed Monty. For some reason, Sam is not struck by the dubious morality of slaughtering hundreds in order to save one mole.

The graphics in this game are its weakest point. They are appalling. Stiff and jerky little characters run around screens which look impressive until anything moves. Then the old attributes problems strikes, and strikes with a vengeance. The resulting mishmash of colours and confusion of colours with background would be funny if it were not so bad.

The idea behind the game is good, but it is badly presented. Doors to other screens are often invisible, and the 3D pictures are confusing. On the whole, the game is not a patch on Monty Mole.

Produced for the 48K Spectrum by Gremlin Graphics, Alpha House, 10 Carver Street, Sheffield.

Spectrum 48K
Gremlin Graphics
Arcade Adventure
£6.95

Gremlin Graphics' character Monty first came to prominence in Monty Mole - a game which trod on a few nerves with its references to the miners' strike - especially in view of the fact that the author was the son of a pit safety officer.

In an attempt to redress the balance, we find Monty has been reduced to stealing coal and has been imprisoned for this.

The aim of the game is for Monty to get the key from the prison governor's office and escape. He rushes around various screens being pursued by prison officers, ghosts and so on. He can move from screen to screen by rushing off the side sliding up and down ropes or by falling down holes.

Plenty of imagination has been used to create the backdrops - there are a couple of good 3D mazes and an ingenious sequence in a gymnasium. Money received front sales of Monty Mole was destined for donation to the Miner's Welfare Fund - though at the time of going to press, this body still had not made up its mind to accept the gift. The Miner's Welfare Fund is an established charity which existed prior to the strike. No such donations are planned this time.

A competent and graphically inventive game.