Phileas Fogg's Balloon Battles

Crash

Presentation 67%

Graphics 70%

Sound 60%

Playability 80%

Addictivity 81%

Overall 76%

Nick Roberts 76%

Zeppelin Games £3.99 Philleas Fogg is a strange little game. It seems this wise man (complete with handlebar moustache) was on one of his trips around the world when he volunteered for a dangerous and daring mission. Set in the war fields of 1871, Fogg controls his special hydrogen balloon complete with High Pressure Thrust (oo-er) and splatters the enemy with the bombs he's carrying. Moving around the landscape is bleedin' hard work, as the wind blows you wherever it feels like and floating too low over enemies may result in the balloon being popped and the gas igniting - BOOM!!! You take off by dropping sandbags over the side of the basket to make the balloon lighter. The more sandbags or bombs dropped the easier the balloon is to control. There are four levels of altitude and getting the correct one for your area is a must. The troopers roaming around blast you at level two, cannons get you at level three, hills are tough to cross and mountains can't be passed at all. Towns, rocks, lakes and shacks are also dotted around the levels and all affect the balloon. There's also the odd friendly shack, identified by a flag, and landing near one of these will increase your hydrogen, bomb and sandbag levels. Balloon Battles is extremely annoying at first. You have to read the instructions over and over before you reaslise what you're supposed to be doing! Once you've got the hang of the game it's quite fun, though. Zeppelin have always been one for the more obscure titles and this is one of them - great fun to play.

With a name like Phileas Fogg's wouldn't you go around the world to escape the ridicule of your mates!

Sinclair User

Graphics 54%

Sound 50%

Playability 58%

Lastability 63%

Overall 52%

Alan Dykes 52%

Garth Sumpter

Label: Zeppelin Memory: 48K/128K Price: 3.99 Tape Reviewer: Alan Dykes I have it on good authority that Phileas Fogg never actually used a balloon in the book but he has been immortalised on film in "Around the World in Eighty Days" in one and it is roughly around this plot that Phileas Fogg's Balloon Battles is based. Basically the idea is to travel around in said balloon, destroying enemy cities, soldiers, gun emplacements and buildings. Control isn't complicated, because you are flying a lighter than air craft with no power of it's own and basically it gets blown all over the shop. The only way you can change direction is to deflate the balloon and fall, or lose weight by dropping sand bags and rise, this enables you to catch different air currents which will shoot you in another direction. Foggy world rotates between day and night, and this time cycle effects the hydrogen in your balloon. During the day it expands, making your craft more buoyant, conversely during the night it contracts and you need to use much more of the gas to stay in the air. The graphics are all black and yellow whilst icons around the screen show your current score, the proximity of friendly troops, the coming of night and day and the direction the wind is blowing. Gameplay is easy and once you get used to the unusual movements of wind and balloon the game is quite playable and becomes reasonably interesting. Phileas Fogg's Balloon Battles is just about a fun game, it's such a good idea that it will fascinate you for awhile but ultimately, even though it is a budget title, it lacks the class needed to be really good.

Balloon battle alert, but that's not all!!

Get off the ground very fast!

Phileas is in a bit of a mess.

Wind coming from all directions!

SU GAME BUSTER Make sure you stay above the flak because venturing too low over the battlefield will bring a hail of cannon shells and musket fire, threatening to prematurely end your aeronautical endeavours in a cloud of smoke. To destroy your targets you use bomblets, with the shadow of the balloon acting as an aiming device. You can replenish stores of bombs, sandbags and hydrogen at friendly cottages dotted, not so frequently around the landscape. Bombing a musketeer gives you 20 points, if you hit a cannon emplacement you get 100 points, a shack 150 points and a twon 200-300 points.

Your Sinclair

Overall 48%

Rich Pelley 48%

REPLAY More fun than a bouncy castle, better looking than a double cheeseburger. It's JON PILLAR and RICH PELLEY! PHILEAS FOGG'S BALLOON BATTLES Zeppelin £2.99 Reviewer: Rich Pelley Phileas Fogg is a somewhat mad and totally fictitious character who once, and for no apparent reason, decided to venture around the world in eight days. During his travels, he came across lots of yummy snacks and sent them all back to his Aunt Agatha. Zeppelin have completely ignored this and, using a decidedly hefty chunk of artistic licence, have got him stopping over mid-journey to help out some Allies who are at war at the time. Actually, the game has got nothing to do with Phileas Fogg, but I suppose Zeppelin had to find some excuse to produce a game which has you flying a balloon around a sparse play area and dropping bombs on enemy installations. In fact, after much thought, I couldn't come up with a better one than the Phileas Fogg story either. So why don't I like this game? Well, it's boring. There are no map making skills required, there's no map (the background graphics cease to exist), no technique is needed to bomb installations or baddies, it's all up to chance whether or not you're shot down, the graphics and sound are pretty shoddy and overall the game plays more like a sub-game than anything worth releasing. In other words, there is just far too little to it. Call me Mr Complete B... (I will not! Ed), but I would have severe difficulty recommending this game to even the most narrow-minded of people. It's repetitive and utterly unaddictive and certainly not worth the bother.

"I say, Phileas, that dratted factory is following us again. Hit the turbos old bean." (Puff, puff.)