Ubi Soft/Ashminster Computing
£9.99 cass, £14.99 disk

Previewed several eons ago, Puffy's Saga finally hits the Spectrum.

Freedom is the name of the game: Puffy and his sweetheart Pufyn attempt to escape a world of mazes containing all manner of very unfriendly denizens. Start by choosing your sex(!), in other words play either Puffy or Pufyn. Time to inadvertently stumble into the first level. The monsters aren't too chuffed at two beach ball shaped interlopers invading their territory, however accidentally and set about 'welcoming' them.

Their attacks knock down Puffy/Pufyn's energy levels, but guzzling food found lying around revitalises body and mind. The best way not to be caught is to hit the fire button, which gets our little hero to spit at attackers (not a very hygienic way of combat). Special objects can be collected to aid survival: extra firepower, increased speed, invisibility etc.

A couple of games is all it takes to realise this is a Gauntlet style 'solve the puzzle of the maze' game which honestly bored me within a few minutes play, because I've seen this game type so many times before. Graphically it's okay with sprites monochromatic but fairly detailed. Sound consists of a twee little tune that soon annoyed me, and some barely understandable speech.

MARK [50%]

The second Spectrum game from Ubi Soft, Puffy's Saga is very Gauntletified! The game layout and graphics look almost identical, with just ol' Puffy himself bringing the differences. Most of the screen is monochrome with walls having just the odd splash of colour, giving the overall look a very washed out feeling. There are some new ideas in Puffy's Saga though. Unlike Gauntlet and it's many clones large animated pictures of Puffy appear on right of screen while playing, there are also larger sprites in the game itself, which have to be battled against to win. Sound is the game's strongest point with an above average tune and loads of digitised speech for that extra special touch. Puffy's Saga obviously isn't the most original game to burst onto your Spectrum screens, but if you are a fan of the style you will like this.
NICK [66%]

Ubi Soft
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Kati Hamza

Zut alors! Imagine un peu de Gauntlet addez une dash de PacMan avec une sprinkling liberal de Ms PacMan, throw in some frog's legs, a couple of escargots, a touch of garlic et there we 'ave it - Puffy's Saga.

But enough of this franglais banter. Back to ye plaine olde Englishe and ye game in hande. Just in case anyone didn't catch the rather obvious hint in the first paragraph. Puffy's Saga is a maze game. And a cute and cuddly maze game at that.

Pufyn is a smiling-faced, open-mouthed, PaccMan-shaped sort of monochrome being with a big bow on her head who looks just like her boyfriend Puffy - 'cept Puffy's had his bow surgically removed. Somehow, for reasons that shall remain nameless (like, erm, no-one's thought of them yet), our two globular chums have managed to get themselves imprisoned in the middle of a dungeon somewhere. Now you, as one or other of the circular couple, have to help them munch their way out.

Top of the menu come dots. There's a specific number hidden on each aerially-viewed level and eating all of them sproings you instantly up to the next maze. As per usual, there's a load of meanies and monsters lurking blimmin' everywhere, waiting to bleed our disc-shaped hero's energy dry. They range from the fairly harmless sort to great stonking dragons with pointy teeth and little black leeches who latch on to you and knock off 90 energy points. So shooting the blighters comes top of your list. Some of them even have the very useful side effect of turning into energy-giving Puffy-sized steaks.

If you've seen Gauntlet (if you haven't, you, erm, haven't) you'll know what to expect - keys to locked doors, bonus food magic floors, transporters, supershots, temporary levitation. invisibility, invincibility, the lot. Not only that, if you feel the urge (oo-er) you can go around collecting a selection of magic goms (goms?) which give you the power to call up a map of the level or breathe fire in particularly tricky, monster-ridden spots. One rather spanky little feature is that Puffy and Pufyn have different abilities. Puffy's stronger so he doesn't need to pop so many pills to stay alive but Pufyn's a quicker, much more slippery customer so she's harder to catch. Cute, huh?

Cute, in fact, is definitely the operative word because the Puffies boast a whole selection of rubbery facial expressions. For extra syrupy cuteness factor, they even manage to talk. Puffy shouts "Yum" and even stretches to a sort of crackly giggle in glorious Speccy sound.

As for the gameplay. If you liked Gauntlet or PacMania you'll probably squeeze more than a couple of chuckles out of this. It doesn't have quite as many features as Gauntlet and, apart from the main characters, the graphics aren't exactly among the most corkendous ever to appear in a maze game. But it's good, squeaky-clean fun all the same. If maze-munchers are your 'thang', go for it before you run out of puffy (groan).

REPLAY

Hush, hush - whisper who dares! Who are those figures there on the stairs? It's the Replay gang! (Oh dear.)

The Hit Squad
£3.99 cassette
061 832 6633
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Back in the late eighties everybody was doing it. Gauntlet clones, that is, of which Puffy's Saga was the 'cute but weird' contribution from that reputable firm of French people, Ubisoft.

Imagine, if you will, the original Gauntlet and prepare to make a few notable changes. Firstly, reduce things to one player only. A tall order, one might think, especially as Gauntlet boasted one of the most fun two-player options ever on the Speccy, or at least it did until you just got rid of it. Next, fiddle about with the gameplay a bit; instead of aiming to locate the exit of each level, shooting things on the way, stick in a small number of Pac-Man type dots instead. Now to advance a level you have to scoff all the dots (with some dots rewarding you with maps or firepower) so feel free to considerably tone down the maze element of the game.

By now two pictures should have formed in your head - a gleaming, beautifully framed oil painting of Gauntlet, and a rather tatty, dog-eared preliminary sketch of Puffy's Saga. Tragically, a vicious circle seems to have formed. If you've played Speccy Gauntlet before then Puffy will seem slow, jerky and unexciting and graphically far inferior in comparison. If you don't already own Gauntlet then that along with Deeper Dungeons and Gauntlet 2 are available as a package for four quid on the Kixx label - as much overhead-scrolling shooting as you could ever get (and would probably ever want) for the money. My advice? Well. I haven't got any really. I just wouldn't bother with Puffy's Saga, that's all.

Label: Ubisoft
Author: In House
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter

Zut alors! Que-est-ce que? C'est Puffy's Saga from Ubisoft and it looks to all intents like a Gauntlet a la Francais. Problem is though, it doesn't play like one and the incredibly difficult gameplay makes it nearly impossible to want to play the game for more than half an hour.

And what do you have to do with the time that you have during the game? Well, it's all a bit sketchy but let's be British about this and give it our best shot.

At the beginning of the game you choose either Puffy or Pufyn (who is the girly version of the two), and must then make your way along the Gauntlet like levels, avoiding various nasty monsters that range from Pac man lookalikes to ruddy great monsters that look as if they could eat a horse for breakfast and only leave the hooves. Puffy (or Pufyn), who both happen to look like Ribena blackcurrants, meander along the mazes and corridors firing at nasties as they home in on them. If an 'orrible petit monster catches our hero, then it will drain health points from them. Just like Gauntlet so far, so what's the problem then? Well I'm glad you asked that my petit bag of chicken giblets, 'cos the main problem with the game is that if even a single monster catches you then it's really difficult to shake them off. Whilst this may be an accurate simulation of your chances of releasing the grip of a homicidal maniac as he rips your throat open with his bare teeth, it never the less makes the game frustrating to the extreme and as I always want to be entertained by a game I find this just a little too hard to swallow (with or without an intact throat!)

Anyway, on with the game. Try as I might. I can't say anything about later levels because I found it all far too hard for even a seasoned (salt and French mustard), veteran like myself. But, as you pick your merry way along, there are oodles of goodies to pick up - Magic Gom's, Supershots, Levitation, Keys, Invisibility potions, Legs of (British?) meat which add to your health. Health? Oh yes! I said it was like Gauntlet, perhaps I should have said it was Gauntlet but had been written in French. Problem being, as with the game's sampled speech, it's lost so much in the translation as to be virtually unrecognisable and sounds as bad as it plays.