C&VG


Aaargh!
By Electronic Arts
Amiga 500

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #81

Aaargh!

Hey, let's do the monster mash and romp stomp and chomp our way through the world. Cry "Aaargh!" and let slip the fists of fury.

This is, believe it or not, a coin-op conversion of the Arcadia game. But I doubt if too many of you will have seen it. As far as I can judge, the arcade machines are few and far between which is a pity because it's a neat little game.

And Melbourne House's game is just as fun. So it should be considering both the coin-op and the home version use the same Amiga board technology.

Aaargh!

Right on with the mayhem. You have a choice of two monsters to play - the ogre, a gigantic brute, 20 feet high, one eye and a huge horn stuck in the middle of his forehead; and the dragon, 18 feet of green scaly fire-breathing nastiness.

The idea of the game is to ultimately collect a golden egg. To get there, you must trample, smash, pulverise the buildings on each of the twelve cities, which range from straw huts, wooden forest Indian temples and Chinese pagodas.

Hidden in each of these screens are five eggs. When you get one, you have to take it back to your cave. This is a sub-game where you are challenged by the other monster for the egg. If you win, you keep the egg, lose and it's back to more trampling. If you successfully manage to get five eggs to your cave, you can progress further into the game towards the golden egg.

Aaargh!

But the monsters don't have things all their own way. Quite understandably, the inhabitants don't take too kindly to being stomped on, eaten and having their homes destroyed. They fight back with what appears to be a huge catapult-type weapon. And there are big flying hornets with a sting in their tail which can prove deadly, even to monsters.

In fact, when a monster dies, it's quite gruesome. He fails to bits in a welter of blood and dismembered limbs!

The only niggle I had was that control of the monster was not particularly sensitive. Sometimes I was punching when I wanted to stomp.

Aaargh!

The screens are rather nice, highly detailed and the music adds considerably to the jollity of the game.

The game is very similar to Rampage in its total destruction approach, but no less playable for that.

If you spot the spelling mistake in the game, write in and tell us and we'll give an Amiga game as a prize. Arcadia, Melbourne House ane Mastertronic employees are banned. But then again, they never noticed in the first place.

Paul Boughton