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SLEEPING BEAUTY
This sleeper of a hit was released more than a year ago in Germany and France to rave reviews, and it's a mystery why nobody bothered to import it over here. Never ones to let such a quality game escape our attention, those good folks at Digital Integration have teamed up with the title's Continental publishers, Coktel Vision, to give us all a chance to share in the miscreant antics of three young goblins and some of the funniest animations I've seen in an Amiga game.

We'll forget about the plot – which is some nonsense about a mad-as-a-cow King and his three loyal goblins who are sent on a quest to find a cure for his mysterious illness – and jump straight into the game. The idea is to guide the three goblins through twenty-two single-screen levels in search of four magical components which, when combined, will provide the cure to their ailing King's madness. Each level has a set task to complete. It's not immediately obvious what that task is, and some are quite off-the-wall and zany, but there are several subtle clues scattered about to help you on the way.

In a doff of the hat to Psygnosis' Lemmings, Gobliiins three characters have their own individual abilities and strengths. Asgard is the beefy-looking one who, naturally enough, is good at hitting things and using his strength to climb up ropes. On the other hand, Ignatius is a weedy magician who can cast spells on almost anything, but cannot predict the results. Completing the trip comes Oups, sporting a stylish bobble hat atop his bonce, and who can collect and use the various objects scattered about each screen. By manipulating all three, in turn, the player has to use their individual abilities to solve the game's many puzzles, red herrings and traps.

ENERGY DRAIN
It's not as simple as that, though, as the amount of experimentation open to you and your minions is severely limited by an energy bar for each character. Fall foul of a particular trap and your energy level is rapidly eaten away. Use it all up, and one of your three characters bites the dust. Annoyingly, it's not possible to complete the entire game without all three goblins in toe, so you'll either have to start again or restart using the handy level codes released at the end of each successfully-completed stage.

Everything in the game is mouse-controlled. Placing the arrow cursor on the main screen and clicking the left button designates the sport or area for the currently-selected goblin to walk to. Clicking the right mouse button cucles through the various options open to your current character. For instance, a clenched fist indicates an action that can be performed such as, in the case of Asgard, walloping someone or bashing something. The fist also indicates where the wizard will cast his spell and on which person of spot various objects can be used. It's all incredibly straightforward, which is a shame, as some of the puzzles in the game certainly aren't.

Unlike Lemmings, which allowed the player to logically think through each level's slickly-designed problems, Gobliiins offers few clues as to what course of action to take. Admittedly, some levels give pretty big hints – for instance, one screen features a twinkling diamond sticking out of a diamond mine, so it's obvious what to do there – but even when it looks incredibly straightforward, things are far from easy. Only by constant trial and error are some of the later puzzles solved. It's not a game where you can sit down and finish it in one sitting (unless you're incredibly jammy) and you'll doubtless have to restart each level several times before you solve the intricate puzzles.

SAVING GRACE
With such a high difficulty level and so few clues, the game's saving grace comes in the form of some stunning cartoon-like animation. Each character has a vast repertoire of facial expressions and most of these are used to comic effect when things go wrong or when individual characters have been standing idle for any length of time. Some will stand on their head, pick their nose, play with a yo-yo, or countless other tricks while awaiting their turn.
Despite its slapstick humour and clever visual gags, Gobliiins is a little plodding at times. It takes a while for each action to be completed and, due to the bizarre nature of some of the puzzles, a player may well give up before he's taken a look at more than a third of what the game has to offer. The incidental humour might be quite jolly but it begins to wane after a time, especially if you've tried everything and got absolutely nowhere.

Gobliiins is the Lemmings beater it promised to be, but it's still a fine game. There's certainly a few brain-straining puzzles to overcome and the cartoon-like puzzles to overcome and deft animation touches make for an entertaining game, but things become daunting after a while as the difficulty level rises and the clues become much more sparse.

Definitely worth a look, Gobliiins isn't wildly original, but it is a very humorous romp. And if you like your puzzle-cum-adventure games hard, then they don'' come much harder than this.

CU Amiga, July 1992, p.p.49-50
WONDERFUL WORLD On your travels, you'll meet a wide variety of characters, some of whom will offer help, while others will try and cause as much grief as possible. Niak. The wizard, is a grouchy old so-and-so, but his wisdom can be bought with precious jewels. Other characters to look out for include Shadwin, an influential old rat, Gemellor, a two-headed dragon, and Meliagante, a very sad giant who has fallen into the deepest depression. The latter also guards a run-down castle where a secret weapon resides which can destroy all evil powers...

buyers guide
release date:
genre:
team:
controls:
number of disks:
number of players:
hard disk installable:
memory:
June 1992
puzzle adventure
Coktel Vision
Mouse
3
1
No
All machines



DREAM FACTORY £25.99
Slapstick humour abounds in this teasing puzzler.

GRAPHICS
SOUND
LASTABILITY
PLAYABILITY
88%
56%
77%
80%

OVERALL 80%