Ariolasoft
£8.95
Ariolasoft, having bought this game from Orpheus, has produced a competent if not scintillating cosmic mazer. Tujad is yet another crazed computer that threatens to dominate space. In the guise of Gen 19, a cocky combat droid with a neat line in wasting aliens, you have to find the fifty circuit boards missing from Tujad's sub processor so he can be returned to hi-tech tranquility of mind.
Gen 19 has four lives but as you wander around the hundred plus rooms of the maze you've plenty of chances to find a few more. They're signified by what looks like the Robertson's golliwog but you've got to be jammy to find them. There are also weaponry and energy sources that'll lengthen your life span - very useful since all the chips you'll need won't be found in one quick whizz around. Mapping would be useful, though hardly crucial - you'd be better to work out a strategy plan of what your priorities are.
Most of the aliens are of the puff ball variety (every one's a fluffy one) that simply drain your energy rather than kill you instantly. The big bad nasties that chomp you up are easily avoided but not generally zappable - and they always protect that crucial piece of board. How to circumvent them isn't always obvious, which is where the rather natty transporters come in useful as they can whisk you off to far flung parts of the maze and otherwise inviolate parts of the cosmic rose.
On screen info includes the part of the maze you're searching, state of weaponry, number of lives and how much life spark you have left. Info scrolls on a sub-screen, though it's a bit gratuitous - being told you're destroyed when you've already seen yourself obliterated on-screen all seems kinda pointless.
You'll have seen plenty of alternatives to this and Tujad brings nothing new to the market but on the other hand it brings nothing bad either. Of course, if Tujad had been a Speccy, it would never have gone doo-lally in the first place and left poor ol' Gen 19 with all the bizzo to do...
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