This ain't that bad a
game, you know! You are in
control of Sydney, a likeable if
lost, robot. There he was, flying
along, when whaddayaknow?
The darn plane crashed and
dumped him unceremoniously
into who knows where. All
Sydney has to do to get out is
find the radio that was in his
plane and switch it on. There
you go, simple isn't it? Once
the radio is on, sending out its
SOS message (hence the title),
little Syd can be collected and
returned to base. This means
he'll save Geoff Foley's skin
(strange idea, the author
writing himself into his game as
a side character) and large
numbers of blue drinking
vouchers for the Government!
The display is of the three
quarter view, or isometric
(technical term for on the
skew) type and you use the
joystick to manoeuvre Syd
around. It's almost an arcade
adventure style gameplay, in
that you have to gather various
objects and use them to
manipulate other objects. For
example, using a disk helps
you mess up computers which
block the way. So, you have to
find and collect the disk first.
The bottom of the screen
shows the items you've
gathered plus the amount of
energy remaining, current
score, and the number of lives
left.
It is, plainly put, a good
game and well worth the
money spent. The gameplay is
sufficiently tricky to keep you at
it, and the graphics are funny,
as suits the tone of the game. It
strikes me as the sort of game
that if the box had been bigger,
and the scenario around it
more convoluted, it could easily
pass for a full price game.
Try it! It doesn't take too long
to load, and it doesn't take a
university degree to understand the rules. Save Our Syd!