Personal Computer News


Chiller
By Mastertronic
Commodore 64

 
Published in Personal Computer News #080

CHILLER

Here's a game that's real value for money at £1.99. And if Mastertronic can keep this up, it's bound to bring a few software houses to their knees.

Chiller is based loosely on the video "Thriller" and even boasts fragments of Michael Jackson's hit song as part of its interrupt-driven background music.

Your task is to rescue your girlfriend from the haunted house to where she fled in terror. To do this you have to work your way through five screens, then back again with your mate. Not any easy task, especially when to move from screen to screen you must collect all the flashing blue crosses on the screen, and avoid the various nasties which move around the scenarios. The hardest part is getting back - here you have to take alternate control of hero and girlfriend - not easy.

Chiller

The opening scene is the forest. Here, skeletons wander, spiders descend and you have to learn quickly to distinguish between energy-giving and deadly mushrooms. Next comes the cinema; avoid the knight patrolling at the foot of silver screen, the hail of pop-corn, hop over the seats, collect the crosses and it's off to the ghetto.

The ghetto shows a tenement block in profile, and you can ascend by jumping from window ledge to window ledge. But, watch out for the birds which fly across from time to time. After this comes the graveyard, and finally the mansion where more ghouls await.

The main niggles of this game are that the screens are in the wrong order. The cinema is the easiest - but it comes second. Joystick response is sluggish at times and the action in the scenes is rather similar, leap from ledge to ledge, branch to branch or whatever - all variations on the platform theme. Apart from that, the graphics are quite well done, the sound reasonable and at £1.99 with a fast loader, it's a steal.

Bryan Skinner

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