C&VG


Eric And The Floaters
By Kuma
MSX

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #37

Eric And The Floaters

You are Eric, an intrepid archaeologist exploring an underground dungeon for hidden treasure. In your path, the evil Floaters roam through the maze. One touch and that's it - you are dead. Fortunately, you are equipped with bombs which you can plant. Blasting your way through the maze, you will find hidden doors and treasure boxes. You can also blast the Floaters if they are near enough to the explosion.

When you either kill all the Floaters or exit the maze, you proceed to the next level. As you progress, the number of Floaters increase. You may plant up to five bombs at any one time but you have to remember that the blast can kill you as well.

If all this sounds like something out of Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, you will be rather disappointed. Although the concept of the game is good, the game is rather a let-down because of its poor use of graphics. I am afraid the graphics are slow and dull. The Floaters are smiling, or occasionally angry, and balloons and the dungeon is visually boring. There is no accompaniment of background music either. The maze is randomly set each time so you can never plan your actions ahead.

However, the game is easy to play and can be addictive. I played it for an afternoon and I must say that, although I felt disappointed at first, I quite enjoyed playing this game because the concept of this maze game is rather new. Instead of zapping at the enemy with a laser cannon, you plant bombs which can be deadly to you as well as to the nasties.

If Kuma and Hudsonsoft, who originally produced the game, improved the graphics and speed and made it a little bit more complex, I think they'll have themselves a winner. However, in this state, the game rather resembles those mediocre maze games found on the Spectrum.