'A giant mega-being is approaching earth. It's as big as the moon! Arms as big as Africa! A mouth as big as Malaysia! Teeth as big as, er, Tunbridge Wells. And it's going to eat the earth. WAAAH! It makes me feel like doing something really stupid like volunteering to jump into a rocket, whiz up to it, jump inside its stomach and disable all the major body functions like the kidney, heart, lungs and brain. What? No, no, I didn't mean it! Stop... Where are you taking me... What's that?... Waah! A rocket. Nooo....
    Yup, there you were, having a bit of a josh with your mates when they actually started to take you seriously. So now you're stuck in the innards of a mega-being, squibbly bits everywhere, to say nothing of all those nasty anti-bodies. Uncle bodies and second cousin twice removed bodies floating round trying to kill you. All you have to do is duff up this intergalactic Billy Bunter to prevent it eating the earth. Fortunately, by applying your superior mental intellect, dazzling ingenuity, and especially by reading the inlay card, you have a pretty good idea about how to go about it.
    One vital organ of this mammoth nastie lies on each of four levels, each level being made up of four sections interconnected by long tubes. Yuk! The organ lies in a specially protected womb, which can only be entered by finding all the pieces of the special 'get-into-the-vital-organ-room' weapon. Fortunately. There are a number of things to do and find which will help you achieve this aim.
    On each of the four sections of a level, there are weapon holds in the walls which give you progressively meaner anti-body bullets. These initially kill only a few of the anti-bods. But eventually make mincemonster of everything in sight. Grabbing the crystals which lie few and far between, will give repeat fire for three minutes, and the spare helmets will protect you against bullets, gas and some anti-bods for two and a half minutes. Last. But not least, there's the map capsule to be grabbed early on, which will show your position, and if there are any of the above-mentioned goodies in the same area. Careful how you go with this one, though, 'cos if you use it for more than three minutes, cor blimey matey and blow me down peeps if it don't go and pack up on you.
    The scenario of Gutz has got to be one of the best I've read for ages, and perhaps owes a teensy weensy bit to Innerspace methinks? What it boils down to however, is a pseudo 3-D maze game, where you charge around killing all and sundry, grabbing everything which lies in your path, and generally having great fun. The main figure and all the wibbly wobbly anti-bodies are well animated, and the scrolling is excellent. Each section of a level has a different design, and the part of the game played in the interconnecting tubes is also well done and fun to play. The only drawback is the monochrome levels. A bit of colour wouldn't have gone amiss.
    Gutz has the vital 'one more go' element, and its speed adds to the addictiveness. Stand still for more than a second, and you'll get sprayed in a hail of bullets.
    The package is also very well presented, and the pause mode will blow your socks off. I don't remember ever seeing my Speccy do that before! This game should keep mapping types happy for ages, and proves there's life in the old maze game yet.

Ratings given by other magazines

6/10      6/10

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