Commodore User


Thunderbirds
By Firebird
Commodore 64

 
Published in Commodore User #28

Thunderbirds

Nobody out there needs reminding about Thunderbirds. Along with Captain Scarlet, they rank among the best kids' TV programmes ever. Like Star Trek they'll run and re-run on the box until we're all old fogies.

Firebird have acquired the licence to this Gerry Anderson classic, but have put the game out on their new Super-Silver range. Does this mean they've made a mess of it?

Judging from the titles already released, the range is well worth keeping an eye on. For not very much money, they offer a good deal of brain-teasing gameplay.

Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds is less impressively graphically than some, but arguably offers an even more satisfying puzzle. What is unusual about it is the fact that two different spacecraft with different characteristics have to be used together to crack the problems.

The ultimate aim is to rescue a team of Egyptologists trapped in an ancient tomb. The tomb takes the form of a catacomb of passages, sealed at numerous points by sliding blocks. Some of these blocks can be moved by Thunderbird 1, some by Thunderbird 2 and some by both. So the problem is to work out the right sequence of events (switching regularly from control of one craft to the other) to clear your way deeper into the tomb.

A further complication is that the craft are of different shape - one's short and squat, the other long and thin. Often only one of them can fit a particular passage.

Thunderbirds

This means you may, for example, have to take one of the craft out of one screen, through several others, than back to the first screen by a different entrance which will then enable it to shift a block from the other craft's path.

Your task can be made considerably easier by taking on board certain items of equipment such as weed-killer, acid, and explosives. In certain screens these will automatically come into operation making your life easier.

Each piece of equipment costs you points, however, and so once you've solved the game with them, you can try again with fewer items.

Thunderbirds

One slightly bizarre feature is that the exits to each screen vary according to where, and in what craft, you enter them. Although this stretches one's credulity somewhat, it's an element you can (and must) exploit in solving some of the puzzles.

The graphics and sound are pretty rudimentary except at the start where an American voice intones 'Thunderbirds are go' and a graphic sequence shows them blasting off.

However, this game is about puzzling, and on that level it's very pleasing indeed. The quality of Firebird's recent budget titles is good news for gamers. Most of them are a good deal better than Mastertronic - and only for an extra pound.

Chris Anderson

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