Did you see any of those Human Animal programs that were on the BBC a couple of month's back? What a load of tosh they were. (No they weren't - Ed) If you really want to find out about the animal within, you'd be far better off playing a game like Battlespheres, You see, Batt/espheres is one of those wonderful two-player games that brings out the most base animal instincts in everybody. What happens is that the two players take up positions on a grid liberally dotted with walls and bombs and such like. From their chosen positions the two opponents throw ball-bearings at each other in the fond hope that one of their silver bullets will hit the enemy base.    
Put simply, you've got to hit your enemy... er, opponent... before they hit you, The programmer has been most unsporting, however, (aren't they always) and on most of the numérous levels there are enough obstacles to make this simple aim more than a little tricky. Too tricky on a good number of levels, in fact, which often makes luck the most important asset required to win. For a while this isn't a problem - if anything, the fact that you fluked adds to the sadistic pleasure of winning. But in the long run il does become tiresome, and detracts somewhat from the gameplay. Presentation-wise, Batt/espheres must be the most fully-featured game in the public domain. Not only does it include such familiar things as a leveWesigner and a choice of colours, but it features options that you've probably never thought of, such as the choice between using QWERTY and AZERTY keyboards [for French users, or so we're told). The sound isn't bad either, but the colourless graphics are just average. However, no amount of features and options can hide the fact that while Baff/espheres is initially great fun, you won't exactly keep coming back again and again. Still, for the few hours of primeval gameplay it does provide, it's still well worth a look. AMSTRAD ACTION n°110 |
