Bombs Away

ZAT 25 / page 17

It's a lovely, sunny day and you decide to take your kids to the local park to while away the afternoon... but tragedy strikes when masked miscreants kidnap your offspring and hold them hostage in a dank, dismal cave. Despite contacting the police, you decide to take matters into your own hands.

Enter Shuffles, and his spouse Wobbles, who you "hire" to rescue your children, and they come up with an excellent solution to save the day. They decide to use a bomb which will blow-up the cave (?) and thus release your children. Unfortunately, the bomb has been broken into three parts and so the daring two-some must hunt high and low, (avoiding birds, bees and other obligatory nasties which are deadly to the touch) for the parts to make the bomb. Will they find the missing pieces? Will the children see their parents ever again? Who wrote this plotline, and do we really care how absurd it is? (Not)

Bombs Away is a lovely Graphic Adventure game with colourful, simple graphics and smooth gameplay (best played using the cursor key option). Shuffles and Wobbles are a throw-back to those Spectrum symbiots, Heads and Heels. You can "swop" between them (though you can only do this 50 times) which is useful in order to solve the puzzles that bar their progress. There are lots of useful objects to find and use, some of which can be used against the deadly enemies they encounter. Take care to avoid contact with these menacing appariations as you may lose one of the characters' three lives. Bombs Away isn't overtaxing so will appeal to most arcade adventurers who like a good sprinklink of well-drawn animated graphics thrown-in to add extra spice to their game-play. A good effort all round. Can't wait for a sequel. DB