The Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years
Front PageSearch SiteE-Mail MeArticle IndexJoystick Jugglers
Screenshot
Loader
YS Scan
Click images to enlarge
Auf Wiedersehen Monty
Gremlin £7.95 Jun 1987 YS18
Graphics: 9/10
Playability: 8/10
VFM: 9/10
Addictiveness: 9/10
9/10 Overall
 
Search WOS
Get tips for this game
Marcus Berkmann
What? Auf Wiedersehen? Or is this merely Au Revoir? Whichever the case, it's certainly not Bog Off, 'cos Gremlin has kept up the Monty tradition and put together a really top hole multiscreen platform game.
    So what's the latest? As you may remember from our preview in the March issue, Monty's done a runner and has holed himself up in Gibraltar. But Intermole are on his trail, so unless he finds a solution quick, serious chokey is 3-1 on as his likely fate. Monty's no mug - all he wants out of life are peace and quiet plus a steady income and a harem of luscious molettes obeying his every whim. What blueblooded mole wouldn't? Monty's only chance is to rush around Europe blagging enough money to let him buy the legendary Greek island of Montoss, where he can settle down far away from Plod and extradition treaties. And he needs your help...
    Of course Europe's changed a bit since you went on holiday last year. Then it had streets, towns, rivers, that kind of thing. Now it's chock full of platforms and ladders, which is just as well for Monty since this is the environment he knows and loves best. As well as picking up travellers cheques along the way (people are so careless), Monty also finds all sorts of items that will help him get out of all sorts of bother. Italy in particular is a very dangerous place to venture if you don't go prepared. At Pisa Juliet is far from being the sensitive flower she's always been painted as - she'll need mollifying with a suitable gift. And talking about paintings, remember what happens to you if you don't give de Mafia what dey want. Piaow!! Thud. And a concrete coffin.
    Every Monty game introduces some new element to the mole's behaviour and Auf Wiedersehen Monty is no exception. Somersaulting's clearly out of fashion - dahling wahling, ballet's in now. Monty's graceful leap is a marvellous bit of animation, as is his pirouette when he uses one of the new springy platforms. Eat your heart out, Baryshnikov! (Bless you! Ed).
    Monty also spends much of his time suspended from suction pads on ceilings - a useful device when there's no floor to speak of and you can't swim. Watch out too for bottles of glug - they give you not only points but a hangover too, and their effect is not always predictable. Vital for success are the air tickets littered around the place - these let Monty fly from one airport to another and cut out many of the more awkward screens. When you're flying you can nibble the backs of the other planes for lots of extra points.
    There is of course loads more. Much of the fun of the Monty games is finding it all out for yourself, so I won't tell you about the Danish bacon, Gorbachev's head or the dodgy lift. But as you'd expect, the game's littered with the sort of visual puns and japes the Gremlin gagsters are famous for, and should you get that far, you'll enjoy every one of 'em. It's hard to believe that this is the mole's last outing, but if so this is a worthy send-off. (PS Far an early laff, wait a couple of minutes on the options screen before you start and see what the two Montys get up to!)

Ratings given by other magazines
   CRASH  8/10    Sinclair User  9/10   
Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database

YS Cross-references
    
pAuf Wiedersehen Monty/GremlinYS15
PRE
C
pAuf Wiedersehen Monty (in 10 Great Games II)YS30
9

Marcus Berkmann has kindly authorised this site
Reviews in other magazines:
       
 
Crash
 
Sinclair User
 
ZX Computing
 
Click pages to enlarge -- Also: MicroHobby
LOOKING FOR EX-YS WRITERS! Do you know where any are?
READERS NOTE: The original YS articles on this site were written many many years ago, and should provide no indication WHATSOEVER of the author's present writing style. Judge these people on their current work, not articles they wrote decades ago.
All original YS text is still copyright to their original owners, including BOTH publishers and authors. Permission has been granted to reproduce these articles by a few of these owners - if you see your work on here and would like it to be taken down, e-mail me and I'll do it straightaway. All other pages have similar restrictions - email me for more details.
    None of the pages on this website may be reproduced in any way, nor sold to the general public (i.e. put onto a CD-ROM) without the consent of Nick Humphries and the author of each article. If you want to include any of these articles on a site or a CD, contact me for more instructions.
Date Time