Ross: If you're looking for exotic moments of Eastern promise, then get back to your Turkish Delight. Abu Simbel Profanation may be set in Egypt, but it's about as full of oriental mystique as a Chinese take-away. The graphic backdrops make decent scenery but unfortunately, there's nothing too theatrical about the action.
Forget the idea of majestic looking Egyptian Pharaohs, the man whose strings you have to pull is more of a blob on legs. His movements are jerky rather than heroic, and he escapes the collision detection pretty successfully at times.
Timing your jumps in the first screen is enough to try the patience of a mummy. Also, immortality in this game is a little mundane. When you lose one of your many lives, you reappear at the point where you entered the room. This is no joke as often you've spent a while trying to defeat one obstacle, only to be killed by another further into the room.
It's all pretty mediocre stuff, and I doubt Cleopatra would be charmed if she played it. 4/10
Rick: You can tell why Gremlin calls this Profanation I'd be swearing if I was permanently stuck in this Egyptian hokum. 4/10
Dougie: Everything seemed against me, including the jerky graphics. I liked the idea of the game... but the reality never quite came up to the expectations. 3/10
Spectrum
Gremlin Graphics
Arcade Adventure
£7.95
Profanation is certainly the name of the game here, since the idea of easing you into the game gently is not the idea. So you will be tempted to use all sorts of naughty words as you signally fail to get your little purple blob to jump past the acid drip on the first screen.
Reminiscent graphically of Bugaboo and Fred, both products of those immortal Spaniards Paco and Paco, and with names like Victor Ruiz, Florentine Petrejo, Santiago, Morga B and Snatcho on the credits list, we leave you to draw your own conclusions, i.e. they have nothing to do with Paco e Paco except being Spanish. You have to discover the secret of Abu Simbel, the ancient Egyptian temple and free Johnny Jones from the spell.
Since this is just about the most fiendishly difficult platform-style game that you are ever going to meet, or want to meet, you will be doing an awful lot of tooth-gritting. You have to learn that you don't need to stand vertically on top of objects. Wait, calculate and think before you act, hints the program at the beginning - it also hints that "The diamond will show you the way".
This means that on one of the screens there is a diamond. You should note the colour of the gem as at another point in the game you will encounter a screen with five coloured squares on it. You must touch the square that is the same colour as the diamond if you want to progress further. Otherwise things get very profane indeed.
Graphics ate pleasantly executed - as you yourself are from time to time - and the purple blob which is Johnny Jones has a whimsical way of looking around and grinning while waiting for the next move. Could be a distant relative of Roland Rat. All in all, one of tho best tombs I've ever had to work in.
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