Snare

by Andy Brown, Graeme Robertson, Hamish Rust, John Dalziel, Martin McKenzie
Beyond Belief
1992

Label: ESD
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Steve Keen

Arr, me hearties, them jewels is worth riskin' your lives for, but do ye have the courage. This is what Big Al' keeps shouting as he wanders around the office with a cutlass swirling above his head and a parrot pecking his botty. Strange man.

Valuable things will be the ruin of mankind, well maybe not mankind but certainly the little known race of Humphs, foremost of whom is Humphrey who has been given a mission by their King: Recover the Princess' Jewels or die. The unhappy Princess' jewels have been stolen by a mob of Space Aliens who are hiding them in deep caverns of doom and Humphrey, aided by a supply of devastating high explosives must try to recover jewels on each of the thirty five game levels. Once he collects the requisite amount on each level he will be transported to the next.

The game consists of individual screens for each level with aliens, skeletons and obstacles littered around the landscape and four directional movement for the main sprite. To start off Humphrey is shielded from the aliens but he must strategically place bombs on the landscape which set off chain reactions, destroying the skeletons and obstacles. Doing this reveals the jewels but also releases the aliens. Well placed bombs will blow up the aliens too but watch out you don't kill Humphrey. There are also levers which open obstacles but you have to be quick to avoid bombs and aliens when you use them.

Graphics are minimal but cute and colourful and although this game doesn't look terribly modern it does get the brain in gear in a Pacman like puzzle way. However ultimate frustration or even boredom will affect lastability in the long term.

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GARTH:
Snare can get frustratingly difficult and each level takes some thought to work out. Not dangerously addictive, but the sort of thing I would have expected in an arcade about eight years ago. Which isn't a bad thing really.

Graphics: 69%
Sound: 63%
Playability: 69%
Lastability: 68%
Overall: 65%

Summary: At first look this game gives the impression of being very much in the class of public domain software but further examination reveals a lot of thought in game planning and some imaginative graphic combinations. Harks back to the old days but it's still an attractive and non run-of-the-mill game for the price.

Transcript by Chris Bourne