Commodore User


Fire Ant
By Mogul
Commodore 64

 
Published in Commodore User #12

Fire Ant

This is a hybrid arcade/adventure game. The joystick directly moves one of the characters; that makes it arcade. The other half of the formula arises from the necessity to collect objects and decipher their possible uses, learning by experience, game by game.

Liberties have been taken with zoological facts: scorpions have adopted social habits and formed a colony. They have seen fit to abduct a queen ant. And as busybody in chief you have undertaken to puzzle your way through eight screens, full of burrows and chambers to effect a rescue. You will draw on skill, intuition and pure guesswork as you grab the goodies, evade the patrolling arachnids and evaluate just how to build bridges, bore holes and whatever other imponderables lie in wait in the latter screens. Always, you start at the top of each sector and you eventually make for the exit at the bottom in order to break through to the next stage.

The fabric of the nests is textured with oodles of colour: no need to make allowances for the scorpions either as they certainly look the part. Competent sound effects with very good 'specials' such as pneumatic drills, frazzling electricity and crunching rockfalls which all add to the superb presentation.

I could have done with more lives: it eventually became frustrating returning to screen one, for once the problems of a particular stage have been solved, a great deal of interest fades leaving you with just a very ordinary game. The fascination lies in the problem-solving coupled to the action: the two cannot be divorced. Still, a very impressive game.