Computer Gamer


Orm And Cheep: The Birthday Party

Publisher: Macmillan
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Computer Gamer #8

Orm And Cheep: The Birthday Party

Orm and Cheep are enjoying a certain degree of popularity as children's television favourites. Now you can watch them any time, with this program from Macmillan's.

Principally it is a maze game with another two little games thrown in for good measure.

We start off in Orm's house where he is preparing to make his cake. First he goes along the rows of ingredients and you can see what is in each jar. Next Cheep appears so that he can help. As Orm indicates an ingredient in a speech bubble, Cheep starts fluttering above each jar in turn. When he is over the correct one, a keypress will cause Orm to ask for another ingredient.

Orm And Cheep: The Birthday Party

Once all the ingredients have been found, Cheep sets off in search of their friends and the first maze is entered. This should pose no real problem and can easily be explored.

Hedgehog, Snail and Mouse are somewhere here but so are the evil Crow, Rat and Cat who can only be chased away if the correct combination of animals is with Cheep at the time.

Eventually it is time to find Mole in his underground passages. It is best to start a little nap at this point because the region can be quite disorientating. Each time you enter a room, your entry point is at the bottom of the screen. So if you now turn left the view of the next location will be rotated so that your entry point is at the bottom and you can soon get lost.

Orm And Cheep: The Birthday Party

On finding mole you have to retrace your steps to get out and rejoin the group above ground. Next you must find Orm's house again because the party is about to begin.

Orm has very definite ideas about where everyone should sit and you have to move the friends from place to place around the table until Orm is satisfied. Then he will go and fetch his birthday cake.

While he's away, Crow pops his head in and in the panic that ensues everyone gets their places mixed up, so when Orm returns he again expects you to sort them into the correct order (not the same as the last one though) and then the party begins but the game ends.

The graphics and sound are really cute in this game which gets to be surprisingly difficult at times. I can't see very young children playing this game but the older ones should have a whale of a time.