Producer: Novagen
Retail Price: £9.95
Author: Binary Vision

Land of Hope and Glory, cold rice pudding, wet Sundays in Manchester and long queues at the Post Office have all helped make Britain the country it is today. But above all these stands one item that has truly put the Great in Great Britain - the cricket ball. This tremendously hard orb, which can smite a human body with such force that it hurts even through a foot of mattressing, has beaten the British character into shape.

But now evil is in the air - the dastardly Count Chameleon has plans to change a cricket ball's bounce with the help of his rubber-tronic ray. This bounder must be boweled a bouncer if he is to be stopped, and Viscount Sebastian Stifflip, Professor Braindeath, Colonel R G Bargie and Miss Palmyra Primbottom are the team to do it.

The characters are controlled in turn and followed as they make their way through the perilous pitfalls that await them on the far distant South American continent.

The one you're controlling is shown in the bottom half of the comic-strip-style screen, with the previous scene in the top half; the other three characters are on the right side of the screen.

Icon and menu systems allow our heroes to move, converse with other characters, and manipulate objects including lengths of rope and thread, knives and reeds. These objects will help you find solutions to the puzzles that obstruct the way to the Count and his obnoxious device.

But it's just not cricket - the bureaucrats, cretins, wide boys and rotten cads our fearless four encounter in South America can try the patience of this English party. So sometimes you'll have to land a good old thump on a foreign body with some accurate hooking, uppercutting - or ungentlemanly, but decidedly effective, punching below the belt.

Be warned, however: if too many low blows are thrown divine intervention occurs, and the offending character is dispatched heavenward.

There are two parts to Stifflip & Co, loaded separately; you must complete the first to reach the second. And remember, Britain expects every man and woman to do their best.

COMMENTS

Joystick: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: large and very good; monochromatic cartoon area, coloured icons
Sound: outstanding tongue-in-cheek title tune with equally effective in-game tunes and effects
Options: definable control keys

Wow! You'll be addicted in an instant. The graphics are marvellous and colour is used perfectly; the sound is brilliant too, with a fantastic title tune. Stifflip & Co is packed full of jokes and humorous faces - I particularly liked the way the screens change and the sequence for hitting people. I can't find anything to moan about in this first-class game - perhaps I'm ill, or just addicted!
NICK [91%]

Brilliant! Stifflip & Co strikes just the right balance between arcade game and adventure. The graphics are great, the title tune and in-game FX are superb; I don't think there's anything wrong with Stifflip & Co. It's polished, attractive, and amusing, and requires a lot of thought. Anyone with half a brain will get hours of fun. The only problem: I can see loads of spin-offs in the future...
MIKE [92%]

I haven't enjoyed an icon-driven adventure so much since The Fourth Protocol was released - and Stifflip & Co's programmers worked on it, too. Though Stifflip & Co is extremely hard to crack, the presentation is clear and simple enough to make it permanently addictive. Each problem is fiendishly constructed and very satisfying once overcome. And the superb graphics express a kind of humour which is usually restricted to text adventures, but the clever features aren't there to cover for a poor game - they add to the strong atmosphere. It's all good clean fun, and well worth persevering with.
PAUL [88%]

Kixx
£2.99 (rerelease)

I remember this, it's the weird game where you have to hit people all the time. That's my expert description! Stifflip & Co. is an icon driven graphic adventure. You have to explore the various locations talking to the weird and wonderful characters who inhabit them while desperately trying to stop the plans of the evil Count Chameleon. He is a master of disguise so your task is made even harder. The horrible Count has developed the rubbertronic ray with which he plans to bring down the British Empire and radically alter the bounce of the cricket ball! Yes folks, it's that sort of wacky, zany game.

The way you control the characters is strange at first. Icons must be selected to carry out different tasks. They range from chinwag which allows you to talk, to fisticuffs for fighting and change batter (work that one out for yourself chip shop lovers!). Graphics are almost faultless, the characters and the way they animate on the detailed backgrounds is really impressive. Pieces of film down the side of the screen show the characters you're not playing and what they're up to. The real fun sequences are when you beat people up. A special punchometer device allows you to select the strongest punch possible: get it wrong though and you'll be a real wimp!

If you missed Stifflip & Co. first time round get a copy today. A spiffingly good romp.

Palace
£9.99

"But Rachael", they said, "this isn't your sort of game!"

"Let me at it," I snarled, "I go for anything that's not floppy."

"But it calls for brains..."

"Gimme!!!"

Okay, so they may think I'm just a tottie sans gorm, but I can tell you - I'm the sort of girl who just lurves a stiff upper lip. Maybe I'm not up to text adventures (let's leave the typing to that bearded hunk Mike Gerrard), but if you can find an alternative form of input, I'm game.

Alternatives are just what Stifflip is all about - alternatives to traditional arcade adventuring, alternatives to tatty presentation.

What its all about, oh my little wobbly ones, is rubber. Count Chameleon, master of disguise, has bounced back with his Rubbertronic ray, which is strong enough to take the starch out of a trainspotter's Y-fronts.

Some time between one and two (World Wars, that is) the balloon goes up. Wing collars will take a crash dive, upper lips will droop and moral standards will slowly deflate, unless somebody calls for the Viscount. Not the chocolate biscuit, but Viscount Sebastian Stifflip, all-round hero and general good egg.

With him are his redoubtable team of Colonel R G Bargie (whose initials were later adopted for a famous interface); Professor Braindeath, who keeps himself alive with a solar-powered toupee: and Miss Palmyra Primbottom, the chap-ess responsible for putting the gingan-goolie in the Girl Guides.

Action in Stiffy is presented in a series of frames, just like a comic strip, which peel over as the action progresses. Watching the 'page turn' is only one of the joys of the program's presentation.

Before you can investigate though there's one big problem to beat. You're all being held captive by an evil general-isimmo! How to escape his clutches? it took me a lot of brainbending until eventually the aid of Mr (my middle name's MENSA) Hughes was enrolled. Be prepared for same extremely lateral thinking.

Most of your actions are easily achieved by going to the correct symbol. You want to move to the next location, for example. Choose the 'Beetle off' icon and it shows you what exits are available. Now select one with a direction key, then press fire while it's still illuminated and the picture will peel to the next frame.

You'll also find 'Chinwag' useful, as it allows you to talk to other characters, both from your team and the enemy.

Sometimes talk just isn't enough though, and if you're faced with one of Chameleon's thugs you'll need to thump first and ask questions later. This leads to the 'Fisticuffs'screen, a sort of fairground simulation of throwing a punch which is, to say the least, tricky. This difficulty is probably the game's greatest weakness.

You can always opt for the effective but unsporting below-the-belt punch, but two or three of these and as the caption has it 'The celestial umpire' will strike. Swiping a gaucho in the goolies just ain't cricket.

Stifflip is simply superb. There's really no other adventure like it. You'll keep running into brick walls until suddenly you put two and two together and stop getting five and three-quarters (my hat size, so stop taking the pith helmet) and you're off into a whole new group of locations. This is definitely one Stiffy you won't want to stifle!

Label: Palace
Author: Binary Vision
Price: £9.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tamara Howard

Stifflip & Co from Palace is set just after the First World War, at a time when the Empire was still strong, when men were men and sheep were frightened, when cricket was the only sport worth mentioning, and Nanny's word was law.

All should be peace and harmony, but there are those who wish to change the order of things, even to the point of altering the balance of a cricket ball. Yes, Count Cameleon, Master of Disguise, has perfected his Rubbertronic Ray, and is out to destroy the natural order of things and undermine the establishment. And it's up to you to stop him.

The game features four characters, anyone of whom may be played by you at any point. Viscount Sebastian Stifflip is the hero, surrounded by his trusty companions, Palmyra Primbottom, Professor Braindeath and Colonel R G Bargie... Each character is equipped with different objects and has different abilities. Palmyra's not too hot when it comes to fighting, so if she gets involved in a bit of a tussle, the best thing to do is swap over and let Stifflip take over.

Stifflip, the game, is a multi-load affair, but you only get on to the second load if you succeed in getting all four characters to the end of the first. The 48K version has no sound, but the 128K has some wonderfully bizarre effects like monkeys chattering in the background.

It's more of an adventure than anything else, and is played using the icons to represent the usual adventure game commands. The screen is divided roughly into thirds. In the middle are two small pictures, one showing where you are, one showing where you've just been. As you move, the pictures peel off, like pages of a book turning over, the top picture disappears, the bottom picture moves into the top slot and a new picture appears at the bottom. The right hand side of the screen shows the command icons, using daft terms eg Chinwag means talk to or trade with, Fisticuffs means fight, Beetle off means move somewhere else. On the left side are three characters not currently playing.

This is no ordinary adventure. It's an extremely clever, thoroughly outrageous and very sophisticated mickey take of the terribly-British way of life at the beginning of the century.

And that could well be where it will fall apart. If you've seen old films from that era, and know the banter you're going to find Stifflip very funny. If, on the other hand, you aren't in the slightest bit interested in that sort of 'jolly jape' satire then you might be impressed by the graphics (which are marvellous) and puzzled by the problems themselves. And you'll soon probably get tired with the rather childish in-jokes which run through the game.

I can see how the game could get you like that. However, I found it all great entertainment. It's terrific visually, the puzzles were hard, but not so hard that it's impossible to get anywhere, and Fisticuffs mode proved to be a real laugh. It works like this. Every time one of Count Chameleon's henchmen appears on screen, they will pick a fight. Enter Fisticuffs mode. You then have a choice of left or right punches, white feather (running away) or hitting below the belt (which is very effective) if unsporting. You select the punch you want, wind up the rotating arm in the middle of the screen to build up strength, and aim your punch by positioning a crosshair in the centre of the moving target at the bottom left-hand side of the screen. Press Fire and your punch will be thrown.

Stifflip has got to be worth a look, even if you're not normally a fan of adventures. It's beautifully drawn and great fun to play, but watch out for appalling jokes.