Super Mutt

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 6/10

Sound 5/10

Originality 7/10

Lasting Interest 5/10

Overall 6/10

Peter Connor 6/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K CONTROL: Keys FROM: Silversoft, £5.95 Our droopy-eared hero flies over a smooth scrolling landscape. In search of his sidekick, Pup. He must land and explore various strange buildings, platform-style, looking for food and the letters of a vital code-word. Super Mutt has pretty graphics and the movement is very smooth, yet it lacks any truly compulsive element.

Crash

Use of Computer 78%

Graphics 82%

Playability 86%

Getting Started 83%

Addictive Qualities 85%

Value For Money 83%

Overall 83%

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Producer: Silversoft Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Author: Steve Beresford Being a story of Heroism and unparalleled Daring, marvellous Hunts and incredible Adventures amongst savage Saurians, giant Fish, monstrous Behemoths and strange and curious Tribes. Well that's how Silversoft put it anyway. Supermutt is engaged in a quest to find his friend, The Pup, who is held captive in the Castle at the End of Memory. In order to be able to penetrate its defences, Super Mutt must enter various rooms in buildings en route to collect pieces of the code word shown at the bottom of the screen, and without this, he will not be able to enter the castle. Some 64 landscapes and 24 rooms make up this new game, which takes the form of a scrolling landscape of trees and buildings over which Super Mutt flies. Some of the buildings below him contain rooms which may be entered, and in these single letters which may or may not make up the code word shown at the bottom of the screen, can be found flitting around. There are also numerous monsters flitting around inside too. Since Super Mutt is super enough to fly but not to fly backwards, care must be taken to ensure visiting everywhere so as not to miss out on a chance at a code word letter. Entering a building is done simply enough by landing next to it, taking care not to land on a tree or roof, and then walking in through the door. Inside the rooms there are several platforms which can be used for leaping upwards. This is necessary both to collect the flitting letter, and to collect the green and red apples which keep the Mutt in business. Contact with some (but not all) of the monsters will deplete his apple store rapidly. Nevertheless, some of the monsters are very useful as additional stepping stones to fame and fortune, not to mention apples and letters. A letter gained in a code word results in the letter no longer flashing at the base of the screen. If you manage to collect all the letters in a code word, Super Mutt finds himself at the Castle, indeed in the dungeon, possessed of an array of keys, but which opens the cell door - anyway, which cell door is it? One contains the Pup, the other a rather ferocious wolf... The only other thing to add is that while flying, Super Mutt must avoid the multifarious objects that come whining along, like umbrellas and purple things that look like the object Jet Set Willy ended up in... COMMENTS Control Keys: Z/X left/right (walking) P to fly and L to leap inside rooms Joystick: hardly needed Keyboard play: very responsive, with an amazing leap potential Use of colour: very good and varied Graphics: smallish in the main, but detailed, well animated and imaginative Sound: average Skill levels: 1 Lives: 1 Screens: scrolling plus 24 rooms

Inside one of the rooms someone's looking at SUPER MUTT - where's the damned letter?

SUPER MUTT waits for the bad weather to pass before taking off again on the hunt for code letters.

Personal Computer News

Overall 8/10

David Guest 8/10

PRICE: £5.95 PUBLISHER: Silversoft [redacted] This tape is like an old 45, with an A side and a B side. Trouble Brewin' is definitely the B side, for in Super Mutt Silversoft has created a character to rival Jeff Minter's battling sheep. Super Mutt flies, leaps, and jumps vertically. Ears pinned back he skims the roof-tops in a quest for energy-giving green apples; defying gravity he vaults from ledge to ledge collecting floating letters that will give him the password to rescue his friend the Pup at the end of the game. At the same time his remarkable (and energy-sapping) agility comes in handy for dodging various airborne hazards. He lacks fire-power, relying on nimble paw-work to reach his goal, but the letter collection makes this an agreeably educational game that doesn't need any mayhem to be enjoyable. The graphics throughout are fine; the quest takes in 24 rooms and 60 landscapes, with a variety of adversaries for the paranormal dog. The game needs patience and a certain amount of ingenuity; the margins for error as you try to keep the dog's energy levels up are slight, and although some of the green apples are easy targets, the aerial bombs in many different disguises are all over the place. Trouble Brewin' is similar in style, the aim being to collect ingredients and utensils and use them to make wine. There are five stages, all more or less the same - they differ only in the items you have to collect and the nasties you have to avoid. The brewer jumps, climbs and waddles, but he has none of Super Mutt's charm. Once you've seen one screen full of ladders and ledges, you've seen them all unless there's some thing outstanding about the graphics. But Super Mutt may be demanding enough to make Trouble Brewin' a source of relaxation, especially as you can stay on the five practice screens instead of taking on the whole game.