Billy Bluebottle

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 7/10

Sound 5/10

Originality 7/10

Lasting Interest 6/10

Overall 7/10

Bob Wade

Robert Patrick 7/10

Simon Rogers

MACHINE: Spectrum CONTROL: Keys, Kemp FROM: Power Software, £5.95 You are cast as Billy Bluebottle, supposedly the sophisticated saviour of the fly world, who as well as being remarkably urbane and intelligent, is also gifted with 'Superbluebottle' strength. Unlikely? Certainly. Intriguing? Yes. From a James Bond style cassette inlay and loading graphic we find that the game is a simple looking platforms and lifts affair patrolled by men with aerosol cans and scattered with various objects such as a kettle, an old style cooking range, a telephone and what I suppose is a water pump. You must move Billy around in an attempt to rescue a fellow fly from the rapidly flooding basement. This you do by using the lift to move between levels and eating putrefying food to sustain your super strength. You accumulate points by moving the various objects and knocking over your aerosol wielding adversaries. However, you must be careful not to block your route since there are fly papers hanging down and if one of the objects gets lined up with these you can't get past, possibly blocking your route to the food. Generally, Billy is a nice enough game with some fairly pretty graphics and a comparatively original scenario. Though you won't find any startlingly original game concepts you won't end up bemoaning the lack of inventiveness. That's not to say you might not end up wanting to throw your Spectrum through the nearest window. The game is hard but perseverance will be rewarded. An interesting aspect of the game is the foreign language feature. Instructions are provided in three languages - French, German and of course, English - and you are even told you are dead in the tongue you select. Does this mean that we are to become a nation of polyglots? Will we soon be able to say 'joystick' in Swedish, Serbo-Croat and Cantonese?

Personal Computer News

Overall 9/10

Bryan Skinner 9/10

PRICE: £5.95 PUBLISHER: Power Software [redacted] Power Software is a new company, and if Billy Bluebottle is representative of the standard of the company's games, you'd do well to ask Santa for a sackful. The game boots up with keyboard/joystick options, but not just a simple menu - the keyboard and stick are drawn, so there's no confusion. Above these icons are three flags, you can select English, French or German, each of which changes the prompts. Into the game then, with you operating the flying hero, Billy. The scenario at the first area is, a cross-section through a house and in the basement is a fly, trapped by a rising tide of water. Your first task is to rescue the winged beastie from death by drowning. You start on the third floor, brick walls terminate the corridor, fly paper hangs between the green telephone and the yellow vase of flowers, and to cap it all there's a bloke strolling up and down spraying fly spray. Being supernatural you can push the fixtures and fittings around and temporarily disable the pest control officer, which is just as well as his spray tends to hang around for ages. On the top floor there's a blue desk, a green kettle and a pot of mouldy old food - just the job to keep a fly's strength up. The trouble is, landing on it skips it down to the third level, so it leads you a merry dance in search of sustenance. The graphics are extremely well done - no attribute problems here - and the action's smooth, with the exception of the lift which is a bit jerky. Pity the sound's limited to beeps and chirrups. There are several neat touches - like Billy's colour cycling through the rainbow when he bites the dust, which in my case was every few minutes. It's a very tricky little number, frustrating and so well done that I think I'll just have one more go...

Your Computer

Overall 3/5

ZX Spectrum £5.95 Arcade Survival Powersoftware Tough three-screener from Walters Computing Services' new baby. Our superfly has to save a colleague drowning at the bottom of the screen while dodging men with aerosols and consuming large amounts of mouldering food to keep up his energy. Good graphics and all this company's titles have French and German menu options.