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I can't say that I was ever a big fan of the later Adventure International titles. Perhaps it was because they were American, or maybe I didn't like the strange un-Spectrum-like feel that they had. Nonetheless, they were highly competent games from the company that championed adventures in the early 80s. This spin-off, from the film of the same name, is blessed with terrific graphics, some of which are animated and update to show the results of your actions. It sticks quite faithfully to the movie, with you struggling to save a small American town that is being terrorised by those vicious little critters. Not especially difficult, but with good old Brian Howarth at the helm, you know that it's going to offer plenty of thrills and spills along the way.

Adventure International, £9.95 cass
Author: Brian Howarth

Based on the famous film. Gremlins first appeared in the early summer of this year on various rival machines but has only now appeared on the Amstrad. As it's one of Adventure International's better efforts of late, this is no bad thing. You play the part of Billy, the youngster who was given a Mogwai as a pet by his eccentric but inventive father as a Christmas present. As in the film, you were tricked into maltreatment of the furry little creature and now Kingston, the small town where you five, is threatened by a rampaging horde of Gremlins.
You have to wander around the town collecting the equip-ment necessary to defeat the gremlins before the situation gets hopelessly out of control. There is a time limit in terms of the number of moves you can make before they overrun the town. Most of the ideas are taken from scenes in the film but they have been modified to avoid making the whole affair too easy. There is a constant fascination for the speed at which the gremlins work and the feeling of desperation at the overwhelming odds created by their numbers. Some of the methods of gremlin extermination are really sick, though. You start to think you might stand a chance after all, once you have practised your culinary abilities on them with the microwave oven.
The display is pure Howarth again, with stunning graphics in the top half of the screen, and a scrolling text window at the bottom providing location descriptions so short that without the pictures there would barely be an adventure to play. Unlike Robin of Sherwood, there are graphic displays for every location (that I got to — didn't quite manage to finish it, I admit). The graphics are exceedingly well presented though unlike the Spectrum version there are no amusing animations. That's a shame.) used to love watching the gremlin in the food blender — whoops I Mustn't give too much away. The lack of animation does not detract from the atmosphere, however. The likenesses of the little horrors and the winter locations are remarkable considering the four colour limitation.
Actual communications with the computer are not as contrived as on some other Adventure International offerings, though there is still the limitation of two word input and the vocabulary is still slightly unfriendly when it comes to accepting words. By and large, I managed to make my point often enough how-ever, without having to spend ten minutes per command trying different word structures. Not bad for an Al game but nowhere near Infocom's standard (ah, if only Infocom type games would appear on tne Amstrad). There can be odd moments of ambiguity regarding Gremlins but that really reflects the nature of some of the puzzles and to examine them now would give too much away. Then again, the whole thing could be an illusion created by the strain of writing this column
other things around here like feeding the busker, drinking vast amounts of old flatuli bitter,..
Anyway, you should find this game worth your attention. It's witty, has some excellently deceptive ideas which means that even if you have seen the film, you won't be able to solve the adventure overnight and it is presented to Adventure Intern-ational's usual high standard. The game isn't that massive as the graphics eat up much of the memory but then again, it's not the size that matters as much as how well constructed it is. Gremlins offers a game well pitched in difficulty, which is to say that if s easy to play without being obvious all the while.

Atmosphere 81%
Plot 69%
Interaction 64%
Value for money 76%
Overall 77%