BARGAIN BASEMENT

And down in the basement this month, it's Nat Pryce - himself available at 20% discount on alternate Thursdays. Any offers?

Power House
£1.99
Reviewer: Nat Pryce

Moonboots, the lunar explorer is stranded in Metropolis, having carelessly mislaid his spaceship, (what a ludicrous plot, eh?) Now he's got to find it and refuel it before he can travel back home, but thrre are lots of problems to overcome before he can return to the moon. Metropolis bears an uncanny resemblance to Pyjamarama, so much so that several screens look very similar to ones in the big P.

All the usual puzzles are around - which door does the round key open? What does the test tube do? But there is an added twist to the plot - Moonboots can turn into a different character at the press of a button. Zoid The Droid is short enough to go under some obstacles, while the Mad Monk and Super Spy can reach the parts of town other beers cannot refresh, or something along those lines.

Metropolis is actually all right if you're into arcade adventures, but otherwise you'll find it extremely boring.

MACHINES: Spectrum/Amstrad/C64
SUPPLIER: Powerhouse
PRICE: £1.99
VERSION TESTED: C64/Spectrum

People sometimes go to barmy lengths to conceal the fact that they've pinched an idea for a game. This one, for instance, is supposedly all about stranded astronauts searching for fuel for their spaceship. Pah! I know a rip-off of Magic Knight when I see one!

In truth, gentle reader, Metropolis is naught but a spacified version of David Jones excellent trilogy for Mastertronic. Here, the put-upon hero, Moonboots, wears a spacesuit instead of armour, and is attacked by aliens instead of demons, but the idea's the same; make your way through dozens of chambers, avoiding attack and searching out the objects which will open locked doors and help you return to your home.

The backgrounds aren't bad, though there's precious little explanation of what chandeliers, suits of armour and Gothic pillars are doing in an alien metropolis. What lets the game down are the sprites; single coloured and very poorly designed, they don't come near the standard you'd expect, even from a budget game. At some stages the white astronaut disappears in front of the white background details.

The sound effects stink too; apart from on irritating BOINK BOINK from some of the bouncing aliens, there's precious little in the way of aural excitement.

Fortunately, the gameplay isn't that bad. Above the playing area is your "Pyramid of Strength", which decreases on each contact with on alien. To the right is your inventory, which never stretches beyond two objects. Each time you find a new object - an oil-can, hammer, key or whatever - it is automatically added to your inventory, and the last object dropped. By juggling objects in this way you should be able to find which will open the locked doors which bar your way.

Each time you lose a life you turn into a flying jelly (I didn't quite understand that bit) and at the end of the game you're told what percentage of the adventure you've completed. An amiable little game, then, probably entertaining for a good few hours but let down by some sloppy graphics and sound design.