Boing, boing, boing -
splat! Curses! Boing, boing,
boing - splat! Curses, curses,
spit! Boing, boing, splat!
Yaaaargghhh!!
In
Hopping Mad you get to
control a bouncing ball (well, four
bouncing balls to be precise), in
a sort of
Wonderboy ish type
landscape which scrolls
inexorably from left to right. To
the right of the screen are your
four balls, which bounce
alternately (describing a sine
wave)
(a what? Ed), and the
object of the game is to lead
your merry rubber troupe safely
through the scrolling screens,
while eating apples and popping
any floating balloons you see
bobbing about. Your progress is
hindered, however, by various
nasties, both ground-based and
airborne: hedgehogs, cacti,
venus fly-traps (ball traps in this
case), sharp rocks, buzzing
bumble-bees and sharp-clawed
eagles to name but a few. But if
you can manage to survive long
enough to pop 10 balloons, you
get boinged up to the next level
(different landscape and nasties)
for more of the same.
Controlling your inflatable
chums is a tricky business at
times. There are just three
movements: slow forward, fast
forward and bounce. And when
you find a ground-based
hedgehog scrolling towards you,
with a balloon above and an
eagle behind, can you manage
to high bounce over the hog, pop
the balloon, and still get all the
balls safely down without
touching the bird? Answer:
probably not, but you've only got
about three femto-seconds to
make your decision... there's
no stopping in this game - you
can slow the scrolling down but
you can't stop it!
The graphics aren't exactly
mind blowing, but you could say
they are chunky, functional and
quite nicely animated.
Hopping Mad is one of those
rare games - easier than falling
off a log to get into, but a lot (lot)
harder than falling off a log to get
very far in. We are talking quite
addictive here. Quite addictive
indeed. Curses, I've just got to
go and have another quick go.
Boing, boing, boing - splat.
Bleeeeeee!
| Ratings given by other magazines |
| |
7/10
|
|
4/10
| |
|
| Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database |
