Personal Computer News


Mr. Ee
By Micro Power
BBC Model B

 
Published in Personal Computer News #089

MR. EE

Mr. Ee isn't particularly original, but it shows that, given a bit of imagination, a 6502 and 32K RAM can perform almost as well as a Z80 with 48K.

Mr. Ee is a wizard who can tunnel through earth and whose main aim in life is to gather cherries. As he trolls around the screen he's pursued by Umphs, an ugly gaggle of characters.

Fortunately, Mr. Ee has had the foresight to equip himself with a crystal ball which can kill Umphs.

Mr. Ee

However, the crystal ball has a mind of its own and will bounce around the tunnels created by Mr. Ee's frantic cherry scrambling until it hits something. If it hits an Umph, it vanishes for a few seconds. Casting the sphere shouldn't be done at random - you never know when you might need it. A very nice touch is the way the errant bouncer does return.

Apples are scattered here and there throughout the maze, and if Mr. Ee can deftly undermine one of these and cause it to fall on an Umph - it's goodnight and goodbye.

Nobbling all the nasties takes you to pastures new, well not that new. The maze may be a different colour and more complex, but essentially it's the same scenario.

Mr. Ee

But, hold on, there's more to this game. When all the Umphs have left their base, it becomes a lump of food.

If Mr. Ee can walk over this, the Umphs and Diggers will stop, and creatures called Maras will appear. These eat any apples they encounter, but will themselves be turned into apples if you can kill them with the crystal ball.

There's a bonus for eating all eight cherries without pausing, more for killing more than one Umph with a single apple. I'm not sure how this can be achieved, but that's what it says on the cassette cover.

The only niggles are that you can't redefine the playing keys and the characters are a bit small.

A difficult, but not impossible game, pretty good animation, a scoring system operating at super-human levels and both pause and quiet facilities.

Bryan Skinner

Other BBC Model B Game Reviews By Bryan Skinner


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