Previous Next

Well I've played some strange computer games in my time but none stranger than this one. In Corpuscle, you take a journey through the main arteries of the human body and, along the way, have to fight off the invading bacteria. Yes, you've guessed it - it's a shoot 'em up! Blood Invaders!

Actually it's not a bad game at all, but takes a while before it starts to get really interesting. The graphics are not as spectacular as the cassette sleeve claims, being just a series of concentric rings moving towards you and representing the walls of the artery you are travelling along.

As you shoot away at the bacteria the level that the blood contains is displayed at the bottom of the screen. When a critical level is reached, a major body organ starts to fail and you are warned to reach it quickly and destroy the bacteria attacking it. Once several body organs fail, the inevitable occurs and the game ends.

Along with the cassette insert, you are provided with a diagram of the human body showing the main arteries. Quite some research must have gone into producing this I would say.

I have two criticisms about this game. The first is that there is no facility to switch off the sound, and after ten minutes playing Corpuscle you will certainly want to do that. It is aggravating.

The second criticism concerns the decision by Micrograf to incorporate a protection routine that forces the user to switch off the computer to end the game. I must chide them severely for this sledgehammer tactic as there are plenty of other effective ways of software protection without completely crashing the machine! Not good.

Summing up, I think this is one of those games you'll either love or hate. It's certainly different and, as the sleeve suggests, may improve your knowledge of the human body. Now I always wondered where my Sigmold was!

Peter Rochford