Automan

Personal Computer News

Overall 6/10

Mike Gerrard 6/10

PRICE: £9.50 PUBLISHER: Bug-Byte [redacted] Automan is a two-part arcade game based round TV's holographic hero, though like the main character it's more show than substance. Not that it's bad, but it looks like the urgency to get the game out got the better of its quality - more time and care, and this could have been much better. It's basically two games: one a 3D car chase like all those ground-level versions of PacMan we've seen; the other a rather poor multi-screen platforms and ladders game. The Megacity where you operate is under threat from a villain known as The Lizzard, who has a nasty tendency to scatter bombs around the city. The evidence against him, in the form of various letter Es, is hidden beneath the city in the platform game. You have to do the usual jumping around, climbing ladders, avoiding weird creatures, and amass the evidence. The game is badly designed, the collision detection is appalling, with the character you control (keyboard or joystick) no more than a matchstick man. The other graphics are pretty dismal too, and the loud clip-clap of the character's feet bears no resemblance to the pin-creature on screen. The chase round the streets can be very fast-moving, and as it's not a regular grid layout you have to turn all the time, but the monotony of the background inhibits any interest. You're also playing against the clock. So with only a so-so platform game, and problems with the program (which crashed on me twice and froze the screen), Automan's quite a disappointment.