The blurb sheet that comes with the game goes on at length to describe the home, breakfast and lifestyle of The Rt. Hon. Charlemagne ‘Charlie’ Fotheringham-Grunes (our hero, and alleged apprentice saviour of the universe). You may fancy the mission, set him by a little chap in a rhodedendron bush, rather less than the breakfast (butter dripping kippers etc) he has just downed. What the chap form ICUPS tells him in rather broken English (either that or the Odin spell-checker needs a good kick) is that they are getting some rather strange signals from the moon. Would Charlie be so kind (and so stupid) as to go and find the ‘erbschectt’ responsible?
The game begins with you wandering about on the surface of the moon (it must be the moon because in the background there is a very nice piccy of the earth). As you amble along, try to avoid falling down the holes before finding a friendly mole — the lunar moles are a helpful bunch compared to the peskies found on (and in) your average earth lawn. To give you some idea of the humour incorporated into this game the wall chewing tunnel finding mole has braces!
With mole in tow leap down one of the holes and you will find yourself in a cavern with ledges and monsters, and more ledges and monsters! Most of the monsters are a nuisance — they merely get in y our way rather than doing you harm — but they are quite fun to squash. Lower down in each of the caverns you find monsters of a different composition; they are not so easy to kill, and if you get too close you will be thrown all over the place and lose a great deal of energy.
Monsters aside it’s best not to forget the main purpose of Charlie’s trip and which is to find the Monolith. He has already worked out that to get to it he needs to find and collect eight ‘keys’ or alchiems, so he must explore the caverns and stay alive. The alchiems are rather attractive crystal objects. Indeed, it is so attractive that you are not the only one collecting them, so proceed with great care if you don’t want to become a victim of what could be the first lunar mugger.
The task is pretty simple but is hugely complicated by the size of the cavern system; not all of the access routes are clear so you will have to use the mole to make extra tunnels. The game includes features such as whirlwinds that teleport you to somewhere that you would rather not be. Huge and deep shafts also exist, which can mean the certain loss of a life if you tumble down one — unless you get lucky and find that the one you just fell into has a very powerful updraft.
Extra lives can be found scattered about the sub-lunar environment, which is just as well because on the bottom of the screen you can see your vital signs ticking away, your current life force ebbing away and your movements slow with every beating you take. When you get an extra life you will also find yourself with some things called gravity sticks. These are very useful because not only do they render galactic muggers harmless but also induce a gravity field in the immediate area causing all monsters (if you can count a cuddly teddy on a spring as a monster) to fall to the bottom of the cavern.
Producer: Odin Computer Graphics
Memory required: 48K
Price: £9.95
Language: machine code
Author: the team
