Crash


Super Mutt
By Silversoft
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Crash #10

Super Mutt

Being a story of Heroism and unparalleled Daring, marvellous Hunts and incredible Adventures amongst savage Saurians, giant Fish, monstrous Behemoths and strange and curious Tribes. Well that's how Silversoft put it anyway. Supermutt is engaged in a quest to find his friend, The Pup, who is held captive in the Castle at the End of Memory. In order to be able to penetrate its defences, Super Mutt must enter various rooms in buildings en route to collect pieces of the code word shown at the bottom of the screen, and without this, he will not be able to enter the castle.

Some 64 landscapes and 24 rooms make up this new game, which takes the form of a scrolling landscape of trees and buildings over which Super Mutt flies. Some of the buildings below him contain rooms which may be entered, and in these single letters which may or may not make up the code word shown at the bottom of the screen, can be found flitting around. There are also numerous monsters flitting around inside too.

Since Super Mutt is super enough to fly but not to fly backwards, care must be taken to ensure visiting everywhere so as not to miss out on a chance at a code word letter. Entering a building is done simply enough by landing next to it, taking care not to land on a tree or roof, and then walking in through the door. Inside the rooms there are several platforms which can be used for leaping upwards. This is necessary both to collect the flitting letter, and to collect the green and red apples which keep the Mutt in business.

Super Mutt

Contact with some (but not all) of the monsters will deplete his apple store rapidly. Nevertheless, some of the monsters are very useful as additional stepping stones to fame and fortune, not to mention apples and letters. A letter gained in a code word results in the letter no longer flashing at the base of the screen.

If you manage to collect all the letters in a code word, Super Mutt finds himself at the Castle, indeed in the dungeon, possessed of an array of keys, but which opens the cell door - anyway, which cell door is it? One contains the Pup, the other a rather ferocious wolf... The only other thing to add is that while flying, Super Mutt must avoid the multifarious objects that come whining along, like umbrellas and purple things that look like the object Jet Set Willy ended up in...

Criticism

This is an odd game to start with, you play the part of a flying dog (pigs might fly you may well say) - well it's true; the screen scrolls smoothly below you, almost like a 'Scramble' type game. In the various rooms well detailed and animated aliens try to prevent you from collecting apples or letters. The graphics are detailed, colourful but maybe a tiny bit too small. Overall a very playable, long lasting game with plenty of content.

Super Mutt is not exactly as straightforward as it first seems. In the many moms aliens may be a danger, a hindrance or a help, and often a mixture of these things. The result is a highly entertaining and original game with some very attractive looking graphics which 1 found fairly addictive and which gave me a lot to do. It's one of those games that leads to terminal frustration when you're almost there, one more letter to get and then a whole run of rooms are useless to you and the energy keeps dropping and.. Pretty good.

Super Mutt is one of those games that make you think, 'I wish the graphics were a bit bigger, or it was bit harder.' It has something lacking, that you can't quite put your finger on. Otherwise it is a very playable game which is certainly worth buying. Although a bit on the small side the graphics are very neat and well animated. Flying the Mutt takes a lot of co-ordination to get him high enough to miss the buildings and trees but low enough to miss the flying storks, umbrellas and underpants(M) I quite enjoyed playing this game although I thought the end was bit of an anti-climax after all the effort.

Comments

Control Keys: Z/X left/right (walking) P to fly and L to leap inside rooms.
Joystick: Hardly needed.
Keyboard play: Very responsive, with an amazing leap potential.
Use of colour: Very good and varied.
Graphics: Smallish in the main, but detailed, well animated and imaginative.
Sound: Average.
Skill levels: One
Lives: 1
Screens: Scrolling plus 24 rooms.

General Rating

Very good to excellent.