Producer: Kuma Computers
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Hudsonsoft

Vegetable Crash has a rather novel scenario - vegetables at war. Actually it is a legumiary Galaxian game with various vegetables dive bombing your laser base instead of the usual aliens. Hudsonsoft is a Japanese company with whom Kuma have a licence to retail their products here in the UK.

The game follows fairly conventional 'Galaxian' themes, with the vegetable gathering in serried ranks at the top of the screen. The veg include tomatoes, carrots, potatoes for perhaps they're aubergines), all of which fire explosive seeds downwards at you. Some of them become so enraged that they turn over and go into a dive bombing routine- Kamikaze Karrots are a truly terrifying thing!

Your laser base may move to the left or right and there is continuous fire although only one missile is allowed on the screen at a time. In keeping with the culinary theme of the game, your missiles are actually small forks.

COMMENTS

Control keys: A/D left/right and CAPS to fire (left side of keyboard), or J/L and SPACE (right side of keyboard)
Joystick: doesn't really need one
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: good, decent detail, reasonably smooth and medium fast
Sound: typical 'Galaxian sound
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3

You certainly won't get into a stew with this game! Vegetable Crash follows a rather sedate path, hardly a frenzied shoot 'em up, nevertheless it has a charm of its own and is helped by the accuracy of the graphics - there's none of that 'but I hit it!' with this game. The vegetables are really well done, with detail of faces clearly visible, mouths opening and closing, and the way they turn on to their tummies like fighter planes works very well. I thought the game was a little too easy to be a real shoot 'em up classic, but it is enjoyable to play.

The formations and game layout is extremely similar to "Galaxians". I liked the fact that the veg is all two-coloured - a rarity in Spectrum games. The graphics are quite good but a little jerky - the use of two colours makes up for this though, or possibly causes it. The game's main drawback is that it's just a shoot 'em up with a new type of nasty. It is fairly easy to play and by the fourth sheet it gets a bit repetitive. The swooping tomatoes, etc, do tend to make the game more varied, but it's still basically a bit dated in design. Saying that, I would personally buy it, because in all I like it except for the price, which is a bit steep for what it is.

The game gets off to a good start with keys positioned very well for either left- or right-handed players (it's not a two-player game). The graphics are very well drawn and realistic in comparison to the original vegetable. A neat effect is created with the continuously scrolling, multi-coloured star background, and also by the way the attacking vegetables turn nose down to dive on you. The game's speed isn't terribly fast, especially for a "Galaxian" format game. Vegetable Crash is quite playable but tends to lose its addictive qualities after half an hour's play.