HEADBANGERS - PANIC GAMES

Armed with little more than a trusty spade, nimble fingers and wilting joystick, our two arcade playing reviewers, CHRIS PASSEY and MATTHEW UFFINDELL, enter the dusty platforms in search of monsters 'Panic' games involve climbing ladders to various levels within the screen, digging holes in the floors and letting the monsters fall into them. When you trap a monster in this manner, there is usually a short time in which to reach it, bang it on the head so that it falls through to its death, filling in the hole as it goes. Failure to kill it in time will result in the beast escaping and becoming a super monster. The more super a monster becomes, the more holes it must fall through in one go, which means digging holes in a vertical line. You have an ever-diminishing supply of oxygen, so speed is important. This selection contains some close copies and some slight variations on the theme.

SPECTRAL PANIC
Hewson Consultants
Memory Required: 16K
Retail Price: £5.95

(We only have one reviewer on as Chris Passey was unable to see the game at the time.)

Five platforms, skinny ladders and poorly drawn moving characters make this game a bore to look at. But the key positions make it a tangle to play. They are placed in a joystick-like cross with dig and fill way over on the other side of the board - out of reach - just impossible. One screen gives the game poor playability. Knocking a monster through one of the platforms only causes another to appear at the bottom of the screen. Use of colour, sound and graphics is very poor and it is a badly thought out game. Some of Hewson's recent games have been very sophisticated and playable, so all I can say about this one is that if it helped them get going (it is quite old now) and up to where they are now, then that's the best thing about it.
MU