Producer: Electric Dreams
Retail Price: £7.99
Author: Shamid Ahmad

On a floating space platform dwells a race of droids. You are one of the low-life machines, ambitious to elevate your mechanical carcass to the high caste of the Omega Droids. Four of these almost invincible creatures already exist - but if you can become the fifth you can destroy them. (Why? Because you're nothing but a nihilist at heart!)

To become an Omega Droid you must destabilise seven ionisers by sucking them dry of their energy and using it for your own reserves. You can find clues (mostly suggesting you destroy everything in sight) in information terminals, and use teleports to transport yourself through the platform's superstructure and its system of air locks.

Movement in some areas is restricted by force fields, though these can be disabled with the right pass.

Fellow droids slide across the platform, and in this extraordinarily destructive scenario you either ram them or are rammed. There is a subtler, hands-off approach to weakening and destroying other droids: gather weapons from the several arsenals.

Once you're through a force field, you can acquire better weapon systems, vital to progress. Points are awarded for moving into new areas via a force field and for blasting out other droids.

Once all the platform's seven ionisers have been destabilised by your eponymous anarchist, you can enter the Meson Interruptor and destroy everything in sight - and that includes those four Omega Droids.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: monochromatic; a bit too bright for comfort; but the scrolling is smooth (two reviewers felt!)
Sound: the odd whine and beep

At first I was quite happy with Nihilist it's very like the Commodore 64 Paradroid, which can only be a credit. And its really easy to get started in - but that affects the addictivity. And indeed there's not much content to keep you going, despite the attractive presentation and graphics (which are a bit bright for extended periods of play).
MIKE [49%]

Nihilist is uncannily similar to the old Commodore 64 hit Paradroid. But though it's playable, it fails to create any atmosphere to capture the player's imagination. Paradroid was a complex, highly addictive arcade adventure; Nihilist is a poor imitation. The monochromatic graphics have little detail, the scrolling is jerky and this bland, unattractive game is almost immediately forgettable.
ROBIN [47%]

I suppose someone had to have a go at Paradroid on the Spectrum eventually. The idea of Nihilist is very simple, but it's spoiled by an awkward control method and eye-straining pixel-packed graphics. True, the smooth scrolling is quite an achievement considering the amount of memory being moved around. But scrolling and automatic doors and extra weapons don't make a game; there's very little content to keep anyone interested for more than five minutes.
DOM [50%]

Electric Dreams
£9.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Word has it that this little number fell into Activision's lap from nowhere, which may be why the usual hoohah has been conspicuous by its absence. But I can see why Nihilist wouldn't be an easy game to promote in these dull licence-obsessed days. it's a curious game, the sort that reminds you of loads of others on the market while remaining curiously distinctive. Let me explain.

You are a droid (heard that before, anyone?) seeking to kill four omega droids, and indeed any other lesser droids you can lay your, er, wheels on. Knowledge of the Greek alphabet comes in useful here, as there are eight ranks of droid from the lowly alphas (α) to the powerful omegas (Ω), all labeled by the appropriate symbols. You work your way up through these ranks by knocking off your opponents (which tend to travel in predictable patterns) and getting through the game in one piece.

The view is from above a la Gauntlet, but the graphics are markedly different, and the features various. Teleports allow access to different areas, while weaponry squares allow you to upgrade your weapons (or get some in the first place). To become a Ω-droid you must drain energy from seven ionisers that you'll find around the place - these'll also keep you alive. You can weaken droids by ramming them (although this is not recommended if they're bigger than you) or by shooting them. Terminals allow you to log on and receive messages, rather like Impossible Mission, and the labyrinthine map of the spaceship (if that's what you're in - who can tell?) is connected by automatically opening doors (easy) and dangerous force fields (hard) for which you need passes - all a bit like Rasterscan. See what I mean about comparison points?

Going further, I find myself thinking very much of Martech's Pulsator (pretty underrated, I thought) in graphical style and handling, while the gameplay has elements of the multu-level map 'n'scrap of into The Eagle's Nest. The different ranks of nasty, and the different ranks of weapons you need to kill them, remind me of RanaRama. but the real comparison point, as C64 fans may have sussed out, is Andrew Braybrook's Paradroid, the game they said could never be translated to the Speccy. Well, someone seems to have had a pretty good go here, Andrew...

Still, countless fine games in the past have blagged ideas aplenty from other games, so let's not moan too much. While Nihilist is far from a megagame (actually that's not true - it's on my desk here next to Nipper II), it's a jolly little package which'll appeal to many - me included. Worth a punt if you liked Pulsator, Rasterscan, Eagle's Nest...

Label: Electric Dreams
Author: Shahid Ahmed
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Nihilist is, to all intents and purposes, very, very similar to Pulsator from Martech.

You play a fairly uninteresting circular character who has to glide around an extensive map, collecting keys and opening doors and not getting killed by the bad guys. Everything is viewed from above.

So what's new? Not a great deal instead of being the largely passive type that you played in Pulsator, your objective in Nihilist is to kill.

Perhaps I'm sounding a bit too negative. The graphics move smoothly and there is some fun to be had from zapping the droids. Unfortunately, perhaps not enough for the price.