Little Peter Rabbit Is Not There

Post date: 28-Nov-2016 22:55:10

Game by: Andrew J Green

Reviewed by: Simon Ferré

After another few months of letting the competition fall by the wayside, I had one of the Authors ask on the Facebook group what had happened to the competition as their entries from around June or July time hadn't been reviewed yet. They are absolutely right that yes, I've not been performing my hosting duties at a high enough standard and for that I apologise. No amount of excuses that real life has been getting in the way of my hobby make up for it, and it is with this in mind that I aim to not only catch up but also review some of the next entries before I even receive them! I aim to give the reviews I write from now until the end of the competition at the end of December the same level of enthusiasm I gave at the start way back in February and March.

So, on to the review of this interestingly titled late entry into the Keyword Challenge set earlier in the year, Little Peter Rabbit Is Not There (hereafter known as LPRINT). It's a snapshot (nothing wrong with that, just that you don't get to see a nice loading screen) so easy to load. You even have to run the game (by hitting ENTER) so it's easy to take a little peek at the listing, but I digress. Here's the title screen which was accompanied by a lovely BEEPer tune:

Simple enough to work out, and the game has quite a nice theme. Two further screens of instructions later, including details on game controls which tell you to use Q, W, E, A, D, Z, X and C to move the rabbit - I'm not sure rabbits have that many fingers. On to playing the game. More of that delightful primary colouring that makes the Spectrum stand out in all its garish glory:

Just in case you didn't realise, you are the bunny rabbit (top left) and the cute character (bottom right) is the baddy. As you move, the square you were on changes colour, and your aim is to change the colour of all the squares. On level 1, you only have to change all the squares once, twice on level 2 and I suppose 3 times on level 3 (I've not got there to find out).

Here's the tricky bit - every time you move so does the baddie. If he lands on your square then you are toast and it is game over (as in the following screen):

And here is the rather tenuous link to the keyword challenge - the ability to print your score to a printer (using the LPRINT keyword). I suppose it does all that the challenge required.

I did discover an interesting strategy on level 1 - as the baddie moves every time you do, if he is adjacent to you (don't forget that includes diagonals) if you move to the square he is currently on he'll never catch you). This is great if he's near the squares that you still haven't coloured, but at some point you may have to bite the bullet and move away from him. Strangely, my strategy didn't work on level 2, as I'm sure the baddies can move onto the same square or one may still move onto the square the other has just left. Funnily enough, I've not yet made it to level 3. I can only assume there are now three of the little erm, blighters to avoid.

To put you out of your misery, I adjusted a variable and ran the part of the game that gives you the WELL DONE Screen so you can all revel in the delight that this screen beholds - 3-D text and a scrolly thingy in the middle:

You know what - this is a quite well written game. In the email I received with the game by the author, he mentioned that there weren't any Bugs in it - I suppose that was to make sure he didn't upset the Walt Disney company.

It has a good theme, great graphics, nice tunes and makes you want to have another go. Ok, the controls are a little slow, and the more baddies on screen the slower it gets, but that doesn't detract from it at all. It's not as if it's an arcade game that requires precision timing and responsive controls. It is turn based after all. Now if it had played a BEEPer version of Bright Eyes, it would have gone on my favourite games list. Unfortunately, this is the CRAP games competition, and this affair is far too good for this. It would have been out of place on Cassette 50, and is out of place in this competition. Such a shame.

Score: 2 (but before long that will be 5, then 9, then 15, then 26, then 42, then you'll be overrun!)