Label: Beyond Belief
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Steve Keen
Ooo luv, fancy a cup o' tea? Tarzan had one, Michael Jackson has one and now it's your chance to partake in the fun and frolics as you guide your very own chimpanzee through the deep and dangerous jungle back into the clutches of his dearest mummy once again.
I am of course referring to Biff, the naughty young chimpanzee who was just far too cheeky to his mother and wouldn't eat his Shredded Wheat. Mothers won't stand for all this sort of nonsense as we all know too well and so she has chucked him out of the family abode, with out so much as a by-your-leave, never to return until he has redeemed himself. Well after a few nights on the town the cheeky young pup has now decided that his beautiful home was indeed a very nice place and certainly wasn't half as bad ass he had made it out to be, well it was certainly better than the cold old jungle anyway. And so he begins the long trek back to the centre of his mother's heart.
Biff is a horizontally scrolling platform/puzzle adventure with lots of areas, some hidden, some not, lots of items to collect and lots of enemies to avoid. Items he can pick up along the way include axes, wire cutters, power cards (which look suspiciously like Access credit cards), a torch etc. All these objects have their uses but only in specific parts of the game. It's up to you to find out which part. You can only carry three objects at any one time but selection is quick.
Biff must face the most ferocious enemies ever known to animal kind. Unfortunately, the first time you see the baddies you are likely to mistake them for goodies as they all look pretty innocuous but mahn, be careful, these suckers can really sap Biff's strength. On the subject of strength Biff starts out with what looks like a lot but it disappears very quickly so don't take too many chances.
The graphics are colourful and make the game fun to watch but unfortunately control of the main sprite leaves a lot to desire. In short he's not very responsive to commands. I also found the scrolling system a little annoying, though it's by no means the worst I've ever seen. On the plus side of things there are a wealth of options for setting up the playing screen, ie. changing colours setting up the position of the status box etc. And all of this does add up to novelty value.
Biff isn't the most exciting game I've ever seen but it does seem as though Beyond Belief, a relatively new budget software house, are beginning to hit the mark as far as game quality is concerned. If you're into puzzle adventures of the Dizzy/Seymour genre then it's worth a look.
ALAN:
Not really my cup of tea, Biff has a lot of potential but you have to get used to the style of gameplay and the presentation of the puzzles before you really get into the game. Unfortunately I have very little patience with puzzle games of this sort, and even less when sprite control is rather suspect too.
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