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GHETTOBLASTER
Virgin,
£8.95 cass, joystick only
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O
Strut your funky joystick |
The
title of the game gives away what it's all about --
really funky music in a streetwise, hip-hop town.
Funky
Town is where it all happens, and this is represented
on screen as 3D streets with buildings in the background,
a pavement and roadway. On these swinging sidewalks
appears Rockin' Rodney and his ghettoblaster. Rodney
has to collect ten demo tapes from the dancing parties
in the town and deliver them to the offices of Interdisc
so that a record can be made.
Our
soul brother first has to go in search of batteries
for his blaster from an electrical supply store. Once
he's got them, he has to find a tape to play. Tapes
are found behind the doors of houses which are visibly
pulsating with the beat.
Once
you've got a tape in your blaster you can turn it on,
and one of ten funky tunes will boogie its way out of
the 64. The next part is to blast other people with
the music to get them dancing (you just have to fire
at them).
When
enough people are dancing, you can deliver the tape
to Interdisc and set off in search of another one. The
ten tapes all have to be collected before your on-screen
tape counter reaches 999, otherwise the vinyl won't
hit the streets on time.
Taking
a walk in the park -- but where are
those dancing people?
Rodney
can cross the street to get to the houses on both sides
of the road, or use junctions to change streets. He
can also wander around the two parks full of trees,
bushes and magic mushrooms.
The
longer he takes to deliver a tape, the more people he
has to make dance before he can deliver the next one.
This is made even tougher by some of the inhabitants
of the town who may damage the blaster or wreck it completely.
Damage can be repaired at a repair shop but a total
wreck means game over.
A
map of Funky Town is included in the instructions and
all the streets have song title games like Electric
Avenue, Baker Street and Strawberry Fields.
The
display is split into your view of the street and a
ghettoblaster complete with tape counter, volume and
battery strength. A status line between the two (the
blaster's handle) gives updates on the game with song
titles, cute comments, and the occasional helpful bit
of information.
The
tunes in the game are excellent and mostly very different.
They only play when you have a tape and batteries. Not
only that, but there is a completely different title
tune as well.
All
the characters are done in detail, from groover Rodney
to the aging fuzzy breakers who roam the streets. If
you hit one of the ordinary people with your music,
they start boogieing around the street in sheer delight.
BW
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