Herbert's Dummy Run

Publisher: Mikro-Gen
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair

The wally-lovers at Mikro-Gen continue their researches into suburban sub-culture with a visit to the department store in Herbert's Dummy Run. Herbert is the nappy-clad offspring of Wally, hero of Pyjamarama and Everyone's a Wally.

Herbert has become separated from his father, and must make his own way to the exit of an enormous department store. Being a toddler, he cannot always reach many of the objects he needs to escape without assistance, so plenty of thought and backtracking is required to complete the arcade-adventure.

Graphics are extremely colourful and pleasing, in the same style as the previous games. Colour clashes do still occur, but in general the cartoon-style decor of the store is sharp and clear. Mikro-Gen programmers seem to enjoy filling up the screen with furniture and decoration, and the department store setting suits that style very well.

Clever touches include the addition of several rooms with arcade-game sequences, satirising Daley Thompson's Decathlon, Bomber and Breakout, among others. Herbert should also proceed with care in the lift - if he forgets which floor it is at, he develops a parachute and floats down the shaft.

Although representing no great advance on the programming techniques and style of Everyone's a Wally, the game will nevertheless delight fans of the series and provides plenty of humour and excitement for the arcade-adventure brigade.