Tengen/Domark/Teque
£9.99 cass, £14.99 disk
Biff and Jet are the coolest dudes around: just scope their trendy shades and rad swimming trunks. They're searchin' for the most outrageous party around, but they don't go looking for it by bus or by car, they've found a couple of tyre tubes and are about to cruise down some of the baddest rivers in the world to get there. Each river sports its own unfriendly neighborhood standing on the bank to lob weapons at 'em. Fishermen try snagging 'em with their lines, tribesmen fire blowpipes, kamikaze penguins leap at 'em and even the Devil makes an unwelcome adversary in Hell when he throws a huge fork at their tube.
Along with shorebound villains, plenty of waterborne obstacles attempt to pop their tyre. Branches, logs and huge trots just have to be avoided. Biff and Jet ain't helpless though. They's got a limited supply of tin cans (and more can be collected along the way) to be thrown at will at any meanie who's stupid enough to get in the way.
They know just how to collect points bonuses on the way - objects lie around, bonus gates can be navigated (not to be done half heartedly). Natch: loadsa points are on offer when they hit river's end and boogie on down to the party. Parties come to an end though, and the next river awaits: watch the booze!
The arcade game's a rather strange beast in as much as a circle of fire buttons are used to control the cool heroes' path through many dangers. On the computer the control method's a little tricky too at first, but a bit of practice soon has Biff and Jet hurtling down the river in search of a party.
Graphically the game is very colourful, but this causes slight problems when trying to hit enemies on the bank, mainly 'cos you can't see 'em - the only way to track 'em is to watch for their projectiles heading at you. That said, the game is a playable conversion of one of the strangest Atari games I've seen for a while.
MARK [85%]
This game captures the excitement and addictiveness of the arcade original. It's especially fun if you get a friend to play against you and you keep bashing into each other. The cute characters Biff and Jet sit snugly in their inner tubes while you attempt to control their antics around the wild layout of rocks, logs, waterfalls and mean fishermen. Controls are hard at first (just like the coin ops), but once mastered you can whizz about the screen collecting all sorts of goodies. Toobin' is an instant hit with me and will undoubtedly provide hours of freshwater fun.
NICK [83%]
The Hit Squad
£3.99
Arcade sensation of yesteryear, Toobin' involves two horrendously cool dudes with horrendously short names, Bif and Jet. Being so cool, the guys' favourite pastime is hangin' out on the local river, shootin' rapids and the like in an inner-tube race.
The hazards they brave in their toobs as they progress down the vertically-scrolling waterway include sticks, fishermen and floating logs. Bif and Jet's awesome watercraft are controlled with joystick or keys, up being paddle forwards, down backwards, and left and right rotate you in said directions. This is a little tricky and awkward at times, but not too bad once you're used to it.
Graphically Toobin' isn't too bad, Bif and Jet are well defined and in different colours, so you're not easily confused. The sticks are basic and easily recognisable (same goes for the logs), fishermen are almost invisible against the garish red shoreline, and sand banks are one colour with no shading.
Sound is a great little tune that was rousing and created atmosphere in the arcade, but doesn't do much on this version because gameplay is a teeny bit slow. You tend to paddle maniacally to drag yourself somewhat sluggishly over to the other side of the screen. Avoiding sticks and other hazards is not a prob but collecting the letters to make up TOOBIN (for a bonus) is hard going. It's a bit too tricky to provide solid gaming entertainment.
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