Wriggler

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 9/10

Sound 9/10

Value 10/10

Playability 10/10

MACHINE: Spectrum SUPPLIER: Romantic Robot PRICE: £5.95 Not only do you get a great game when you get your hands on the Wriggler - you also get Jean-Michel Jarre-style music to play as you play The Wriggler is a cute maggot - and he's competing in the great Annual Maggot Marathon, the most dangerous and spectacular event in the insect sporting world. You have guide your maggot through a massive maze-like course of 256 screens which begin peacefully enough in the garden, move on the scrubland, into the underground then finally to a mansion and lift shaft. But whatever you do - don't go to Hell! There are lots of puzzles to be solved along the way and various creatures avoided. But at least there's lots of cups of tea to be had along the way! The graphics and sound are excellent and the game is totally addictive. I particularly liked the way the Wriggler "dies" when you run out of energy - or into a nasty. He is reduced to a crumbling pile of dinosaur-like bones! This is Romantic Robot's first venture into the games market - and if this is an example of the quality of their product then they are a name to be watched.

Sinclair Programs

Rating 58%

Colette McDermott 58%

PRICE: £5.95 GAME TYPE: Arcade Adventure Three, two, one: and they are off, in the annual Maggot Marathon. The other worms wriggle quickly away as you, Wriggler, hero of the game, consider your strategy. Starting on the maze before you you meet a wandering ant. Ants can be lethal, but this one keeps out of your way. Round the corner, and you find a welcome cup of coffee waiting for you. Do not relax for too long, though. One touch from an ant could leave you with your whole body crumbling gruesomely to pieces and one fewer life. The pace of the game is a little slow moving, especially on deserted screens. On those with enemies approaching or chasing you, things seem to move far too quickly. Enemies are gruesomely animated, especially the long legged spiders. All those eight legs, all moving at once, yeeuch. Once out of the maze like garden you are far from home and dry. You must then wander through the scrub-land, through the underground, avoid going through hell, wander through the mansion and escape. Wriggler verges on being an adventure as it involves collecting and using objects as well as sorting out a maze and avoiding nasties. Original and cute, Wriggler is produced for the 48K Spectrum by Romantic Robot, [redacted].

ZX Computing

Graphics 4/5

Addictivity 4/5

Overall 4/5

Romantic Robot £6.95 Despite the cassette cover that seems to promise yet another 'shoot the caterpillar' game, Wriggler is more original and more fun to play than you might expect. You play the part of a worm (that's novel for a start) taking part in a race around a garden. The garden is populated by assorted nasties, ants of various types and a superbly animated spider that is instant death if it touches you. Beyond the boundaries of the garden are an underground labyrinth and (although I haven't found them yet) a mansion and planet surface, so there's plenty of scope for wandering around and exploring. Scattered along the way are various items including food to keep you going, ant sprays for when you're caught in a tight spot, extra lives, and even a parachute. All the graphics are well drawn and the animation is very smooth. Even the movement of the Wriggler is novel in that rather than just moving left/ right/up/down, you have to adopt a sort of wriggly side-to-side movement if you want to move quickly. The only minor irritation that I found was the tune that played after losing a life. Why do programmers insist on using these silly little tunes? Nobody likes them and they only slow the game down while you're waiting to get on with it. Still, that aside, I enjoyed Wriggler and will be going back to it, to try and find the rest of the locations. It's just that little bit different from the rest of the current crop and well worth buying. P.S. I'd just like to thank RR for the cute fluffy toy they sent along to publicise the game which has proved very popular in the ZX offices.

Sinclair User

Overall 4/5

Chris Bourne 4/5

Publisher Romantic Robot Price: £5.95 Memory: 48K Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair Crawling out from the dunghill of worthy utilities comes the Romantic Robot maggot. Romantic Robot has hitherto confined its activities to producing utilities and music programs, but its first arcade game demonstrates an appreciation of entertainment as well as a sound knowledge of byte lore. Wriggler casts you as a maggot, big and white and squiggly, taking part in the four stage maggot marathon. First you must find your way out of the garden, then negotiate the scrubland, only to crawl underground into the tortuous labyrinth. Thence to the mansion itself and the final exit. The game is essentially an extended maze, with plenty of confusing exits and entrances which defy the laws of normal map-making. On the way you must avoid or destroy the marauding denizens of the lawn. Particularly revolting are the giant deathshead spiders whose spindly legs inch along the corridors and paths with deliberate menace. Some of those monsters are relatively harmless in that they stick to known routes. Others such as the wasps and termites, zero in on you and soon digest your weak, white pulsating body. Graphics are large - two or three character squares at minimum - and although the movement is slow, maggots do not exactly shift like the clappers themselves. A piece of electronic muzak titled Moons of Jupiter is thrown in on the B-side of the cassette - definitely music to squirm to. Wriggler represents a good few hours of fun. It contains plenty of humour and challenge in a rather different setting to the normal hi-tech or low-fantasy scenarios we have come to expect of arcade-adventure generally.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Your Spectrum

Dave Nicholls 3.5/5 HIT

Roger Willis MISS

Ross Holman 3/5 MISS

JOYSTICK JURY Up before the beaks - Dave Nicholls, Roger Willis and Ross Holman - comes all the new games software, from the greatest to the grottiest. Back on the bench again, our joystick jurors are here to pass judgement on all the latest software. Read their sentences before you commit your cash. WARNING! Just in case you find our scoring system too confusing, here's what it's all about. The score out of five at the end of each person's review is based on their own experience of the game. But that's pretty subjective... so they also use the HIT and MISS system to indicate its potential as a commercial success. WRIGGLER ROMANTIC ROBOT £5.95 Ross: Romantic Robot's not a name I'd come across before, so I was very pleasantly surprised by this game. You're a contestant in the Annual Maggot Marathon, so all you have to do is wriggle your way to the finish. The area of play covers 256 screens and features a whole geography of distinctly different landscapes, each with its own problems. You start the race with three competitors but they soon head off in different directions. You have the choice of following them or making your own way. The paths you follow are bordered by multi-coloured foliage - similar species to those growing in Sabre Wulf. All the time you're racing, your energy decreases, so you must either eat or become just another pile of bones in the lonely wastes. Food, in the form of ice creams or cups of tea can be picked up and eaten whenever you're on your last legs (legs? maggots? Oh, well! lid). Two varieties of ants and spiders lurk within the leaves - the first are relatively harmless, but watch out for the others, they're deadly. The graphics are very good if a little sparse but they do become repetitive and the game plays on the slow side. All in all, a respectable runner-up rather than a winner.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Your Computer

Overall 2/5

ZX Spectrum £4.95 Arcade Maze Romantic Robot Restful little game which comes with musical soundtrack "The moons of Jupiter" by Alex Goldscheider on the flip-side. In the 30 year-long maggot race you must move through four main areas: the garden, the scrubland, the underground and the mansion. You collect food and objects in the usual way. The graphics are very nice and this may appeal to people who find Atic-Atac too hectic.

CrashCrash Smash

Use of Computer 88%

Graphics 90%

Playability 91%

Getting Started 75%

Addictive Qualities 86%

Value For Money 89%

Overall 90%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Romantic Robot Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Wriggler is a maze game, or it could be an arcade game - well it might even qualify as an adventure of sorts. The simple truth is that Wriggler is all of these, and in some respects resembles Antics, the insectoidal game by Bug-Byte. The opening screen shows four maggots at the start of a race, and you are one of them - you know it's a race because of the ant with the starting pistol, but you are not racing against the other maggots as they disappear soon after the race starts to become your extra lives. The game seems simple enough to play, all that's required is for you to guide your maggot down pathways until you find your way out of the maze and into the next, and the next, and the next.... In fact there are four main mazes, the first one being the Garden, followed by the Scrublands, the Underground for Hell if life is rotten to you as well), and finally the Mansion with the lift shaft that should take you to the planet surface. There are a few other areas but if you find yourself in any of these then you goofed and life can only get worse. If this all sounds pretty straightforward, the fine print begins to make being a maggot sound less attractive. The first problem you will have to cope with is your diet; as maggot winds his way around the maze he uses up energy. This can be replenished by consuming many of the snacks left around. The menu includes such gourmet delights as milk shakes, bowls of cherries and cups of tea; should you be fairly well stocked with energy (a fact which is indicated by a bar code at the top of the screen) you can always pick up a snack and eat it later. As well as food there are a few other objects that you will need in order to penetrate the mazes and these include tins of ant spray, keys, extra lives and a parachute. All these are essential for dealing with one situation or another, but you are only allowed to carry one object at a time, so you can imagine your despair as you fall the 1000 feet to the Underworld when you remember that you swapped your parachute for a bag of money. Finding you way out of the mazes is one thing, getting past all the nasties in there is another. Your first encounter will be with the black or blue ants - fairly timid creatures these, if you stay out of their way they won't harm you, collide with them and you lose energy which may be fatal. The white ants are a lot more unpleasant as they will chase you and any encounter nearly always ends badly for you. The only way of getting past them successfully is to use the ant spray. Other creatures generally have the same effect as the coloured ants, all except for the spider, a wonderfully animated creature but very deadly. Death itself is followed by a quickie funeral conducted on the spot. Should you have any lives left, resumption is from the same spot. Wriggler takes place across 256 playing screens as you fight for survival in the Maggot Marathon to end them all, with the final object being to reach the planet surface. Points are awarded for picking up objects and eating food. When your energy level reaches a critical point on the bar at the top, the computer emits anxious beeps to remind you. COMMENTS Control keys: Q/W or O/P left/right, K/M or Q/A up/down, L,M,T or zero to pick up drop, alternatively QWERT or the cursors Joystick: Sinclair 2, Kempston, cursor type, Micro Power add-on Keyboard play: responsive Use of colour: excellent Graphics: lively, well drawn, superbly animated and smooth Sound: good tunes, reasonable spot effects Skill levels: 1 Lives: 4 with possibility of finding extra ones Screens: over 250

Bright graphics and excellent animation make Wriggler delightful to play.

Pursued by a white ant, it's best to wriggle as fast as possible!

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Personal Computer NewsPCN Star Game

Overall 10/10

Bryan Skinner 10/10

PRICE: £5.95 PUBLISHER: Romantic Robot [redacted] The Wriggler is the first game from Romantic Robot - now there's a name to conjure with. Programmed by Devonshire House, it's one of the best games for any machine I've seen for a long time. You control a maggot hoping to win the Annual Maggot Marathon. An unlikely scenario, but don't let that put you off. These programmers really know their code, and even better, they know the Spectrum inside out. The first hint is the loading screen - the picture loads from the bottom up. You can't define the keys, but there's a fairly wide range of choices, and joysticks are supported. At kick-off there are four white wrigglers, so it's a bit hard to know which one you are. But, move up and down a bit and it becomes obvious. The wriggler's movement is a treat; like inchworms they contract and expand as they move along. Come up against a wall and you have to tack your way left and right as you wriggle up or down, initial strategy is follow-the-leader. You're in The Garden - basically a maze of brick walls, fences, hedges, etc. Patrolling the corridors are black ants, lovingly portrayed with nodding heads and padding feet. Avoid these like the plague because they sap your energy. However, as they march back and forth on set paths, they don't pose too much of a problem. The detail on the giant spiders is excellent. Their long white legs bend and stretch, but one touch is fatal. There are more than a few types of garden pests: white ants and large-headed snakes (among others) appear in awkward places. Worse, some latch on to your trail, and shaking them off is well nigh impossible. Losing one of your three lives brings out yet another aspect of the program's excellence. Your wriggler loses flesh, leaving a skeleton which is mirrored in the display at the top of the screen. There's also a score there, but the system is a bit obscure and I haven't yet sussed it out. Once out of the garden you find yourself in The Scrubland, where you can relax a little and restore your energy (shown at the top by a multi-coloured bar meter) by passing over items and pressing what passes for 'fire' in this non-aggressive game. You'll probably discover that some items don't replenish your strength - they're collected for future use. Then it's out of The Scrubland into the The Underground, where you're surrounded by red earth in which white skulls are embedded. Fall down vertical shafts and you'll encounter stranger beasts. Survive this and it's The Mansion, as yet beyond my powers. Apparently this is an intricate web of corridors around a bottomless shaft. You'll need to find the lift and the right keys to the doors, one of which leads to the surface of the planet. The game is crazy; the graphics are a delight; and although the sound's limited, you won't notice because the game's so absorbing. The theme's original, unusual, and it's non-violent. But don't be fooled - The Wriggler is addictive. Romantic Robot doesn't have the marketing clout of the big boys like Ultimate or Ocean, so you may not see The Wriggler in your local shop. But if you've any sense you'll order your copy now.