US Gold
£10.99

The Beast might sound as if it belongs to some sword and sorcery game, but it's the huge machine that produces all the toy dolls from Lucasfilm Games, like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. These toys are so popular their production has to run overnight, and it's as either Fred or Fiona Fixit that you must complete an order within the allotted time, or it's the royal order of the boot for you, matey! And the boss is so tight-fisted that you're the only person overseeing the production, so it's lucky for you that the Beast is automated.

The game starts with you being given the order form for the current level. At first it's fairly easy, as only a couple of different character dolls need to be completed. The first task is to power up the huge machine, achieved by jumping on a bicycle and peddling like mad!

You then have to run and jump up the Beast to fix the inevitable faults that crop up, which include lighting and adjusting the Bunsen burner, kicking a plug, tightening screws, adjusting conveyor belts, mixing paints and plenty more besides.

To help you there's a tool box (situated in the middle of the status panel); collectable items appear every so often and when picked up are shown in this display. Things like matches, spanners, balloons and umbrellas help you to keep your job.

At the end of the night (level), the timer (a candle) burns right down and the results of your efforts are totted up. If you've completed the required amount of toys you receive a hefty bonus, but rejects are deducted from your pay.

As you go on, more characters have to be made, Lemmings and Larry the Lawyer run around hassling you and more and more goes wrong with the Beast... Argggh!! (I think I'm going to sit in a corner and cry!)

Night Shift is easily one of the most frustrating games I've ever played. Even the first few levels are difficult to keep up with, but they're simple compared to later ones, when you need several zillion pairs of eyes to keep track of what's going on.

Graphically, Night Shift's very good, although there's a bit of colour clash - but that's not a problem because you're too busy running around like a mad thing to take much notice.

It makes a very refreshing change to see an original game and Night Shift gets a big thumbs up from me (US Gold will be receiving my bill for psychiatric treatment).

MARK [97%]

Night Shift is totally and totally brilliant. After playing endless shoot/beat/puzzle-'em-ups, this is like a breath of fresh air (ahhhh!). The cute cartoon style graphics of the Lucasfilm characters are excellent and the factory machinery is detailed and as well-coloured as can be expected. The complexity of the Night Shift factory may have you slightly flummoxed on your first few goes: you can spend ages just looking for one tiny loose screw or go mad when your dolls come out the wrong colour! But it's all part of the fun. It's incredibly rewarding when you get things right, and getting them wrong can be a great laugh, eg, a woman's head on a bloke's body! The best advice I can give you is get out your pennies, go down to your local software emporium and get a copy before they're all sold out!
NICK [94%]

US Gold
£10.99 cass only
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

Have you ever been in the position where you really haven't a clue what's going on? (Not even the faintest inkling.) Like when you wake up halfway through an episode of Twin Peaks. Or you're in the middle of making a packet-mix cake and you realise you've thrown away the instructions. If not then your first game of Night Shift will come as quite a revelation. It's just like that, only worse. Hundreds of times worse.

Right from the outset it's been designed to be confusing. It soon becomes apparent from reading the first few pages of the instructions that you're in charge of a large machine (called the BEAST) into one end of which are put raw materials and out of the other emerge dolls of various shapes and colours. At the beginning of each shift you're given a production quota to be a achieved - any dolls past this mean extra pay.

WH R 'S THE '' GON ?

Easy enough? Ahem. Although the inner workings of the machine have been clarified since the game came out on the 16-bits they're still pretty tricky to get your head round. Suffice to say that it's split into various components which each perform part of the manufacturing process. To make things harder, whoever wrote the manual has decided to miss out all the 'e's and even leave out pages. Amusing or irritating? I'll leave it to you to decide. (But it annoyed the hell out of me, I'll tell you that for nowt.) There is some compensation. To start off with most of the machine is automated, leaving you to deal with the 'simpler' bits and pieces. All the same, your first few games are likely to consist mainly of head-scratching, chin-rubbing and quite a lot of swearing.

Once you're past that first initial hurdle (which isn't helped by some very unclear graphics in places), and dolls start rolling off the production line to the accompaniment of a range of clunking and chuffing noises, things get a lot more interesting. There's lots of dashing about to be done, switching conveyor belts backwards and forwards, pressing buttons, adjusting valves, collecting stuff and generally keeping an eye on things. And that means testing your platform gaming skills to their limit over the 3 or 4 vertically-scrolling screens that contain the machine. Things gradually tougher and tougher as more and more is left under your control (so it's probably just as well there's a password to each level). Night Shift positively oozes playability, and secretes quality for that matter.

So crap it's not. A deluge of corkingly original ideas and slick execution throughout make it as near as dammit an essential purchase. In fact, if it wasn't for a faint question mark over its addictiveness Night Shift would be a Megagame for sure. But it's not. Missed it by a pinch as they say. (Sorry.)

US Gold
£10.99

Night Shift employs you as a factory hand in the Lucasfilm(™) toys factory. As either Fred or Fiona Fixit, you must produce a set amount of character toys within the time limit or be fired.

The Beast is a machine that builds the toys, although it often breaks down. But you and your handy tool box come to the rescue, so (hopefully) production is kept at the optimum.

Gameplay is like a chaotic puzzle game, combined with platforming action(strange, I know). The first few levels are simple to complete but as you go on more and more goes wrong with the Beast - it's enough to send you slightly mad (bibble, bibble). It's great fun to run up and down the Beast fixing all the faults that crop up but it's frustrating when a million things go wrong, usually all at once. It received a 96% rating (one of the highest marks in recent months) and deserved it, too. A 'must-buy'.

Label: US Gold
Code: John Mullins
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £10.99 Tape
Disk: N/A
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter

Good job opportunities are not so easy to come by these days - unless you happen to land a job with Industrial Might and Logic.

In US Gold's latest offering you are an employee with a mission. The factory makes dolls by heating resin, and using conveyor belts to get the heads and bodies to the bonding unit. The output of the factory is totally automated and it's your task to make things run smoothly and increase output. If you do, you'll be increasing your own input of large houses, fast cars and all the other trappings of success. (Except ulcers, playing gold and being extremely boring and talking about yourself a lot!)

Industrial Might and Logic, have equal opportunities; you decide to be either male or female at the start - and opportunity denied the rest of us without the recourse to expensive and painful surgery.

As Fred or Fiona Fixit, you must rectify the lack of productivit, at the automated factory by leaping around the massive machinery and making sure that the Beast runs like clockwork.

To do this you have your trusty toolbox containing the seven tools at your disposal - your hands for pulling switches and turning valves; spanners for tightening bolts that come undone: matches which you need to light the Bunsen burner that heats the resin; an umbrella which you can use to get from the top of the Beast-like machine to the bottom quickly and a balloon to get you to the top.

The last two items seem unlikely things to find in a toolbox; a Venus Fly Trap and a vacuum cleaner. Use them to get rid of the ruddy annoying lemmings that turn up to trouble you.

It's a very complicated game; you must make sure that each production process is fully working in order to produce your dolls. But, it's highly entertaining. The graphics are good and colour has been used selectively to good effect. And with 30 levels of the machine to uncover, should keep you working at it for hours - even into your own Nightshift.

UNKNOWN REVIEWER COMMENT:
Hey, I like this. I especially like the use of the cuddly lemmings. The game is disasterously complicated however, needing you to spend some time with the manual before playing.

ANDERA'S COMMENT:
Oh, aren't they just so cute? I've never been especially fond of rodents and Nightshift's switches, buttons and levers is a bit complicated for me. But there's a lot there and the little bit I've seen - I like.