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Authors of Technician Ted, David Cooke and Steve Marsden have just finished working on their latest project, an arcade adventure about life in the capital of Britain. Abru Cadabbra decides to plant a bomb in the Houses of Parliament and emulate the action of Mr Fawkes all those years ago.

The game starts with the timeclock set at eight in the morning. The bomb is primed to go off at midnight so Slick only has a limited amount of time to get to the Houses of Parliament and defuse it. To do this he must find the parts of his Bomb Disposal Unit. When Slick finds a bit of the B.D.0 he must scamper back to his hide out underneath the houses of Parliament and deposit the part there. Apart from the pieces of B.D.0 there are also various other useful objects littered throughout the screens which Slick can collect and use to his advantage.

London certainly has some odd characters in it these days. From marauding Beefeaters to bottle lobbing Skin Heads, they're all there to hamper Slick in his mission. Each character has a different pattern in the game. They can open doors, throw objects, steal objects, follow Slick and generally hassle him every inch of the way. Every time Slick makes contact with a character in the game he looses some of his energy resulting in an inability to jump as high or as far as he could before. Some characters will even send him back to the start of the screen which he's currently exploring. Slick can also loose energy if he falls from a great height.

His energy can be restored by collecting various pieces of edibles which appear at intervals throughout the game. At the start of the game there are three pep pills at the bottom of the screen. If Slick's energy gets too low and there's no food in sight then he can take one of these pills to keep him going a bit longer.

Abru Cadabbra is a very crafty terrorist and obviously very keen that his plot should go ahead without any interruptions. He also roams around the City pursuing Slick and trying to catch him. If he succeeds in this then Slick dies and the bomb automatically detonates. An alarm sounds when Abru is about to enter the same screen as Slick.



CRITICISM
'I feel that Steve Marsden and company have really scraped out the barrel here. They haven't realty changed their style since Technician Ted In early '85, which was slightly outdated then. Although there are some very nice touches In City Slicker the game as a whole is very similar to so many other games on the market that It Is hard to appreciate this one. The graphics are very pretty, the characters are excellently detailed and animated and the backgrounds are colourful but there is a bit of colour clash'

'Oh my goodness, now even HEWSON has gone back into the platform arcade adventure days. Surely the public must be getting sick of this type of game, I sure am! That said, there no doubt that City Slicker certainly is a good game. The graphics are very smart and original. The movement of all the characters is a bit simple but good enough. Colour is well used throughout all the screens with no clashes at all. More of the Uridium stuff would go down better here.'

'Oh dear. I'm not here. I'm busy. I'm anything except writing a City Slicker comment. Please, don't make me do it! Nooooo! I've played and written about innumerable arcade adventures today. I'm well and truly sick of them. City Slicker is another big, boring typification of this sort of game. And therefore I don't like it much. After Uridium & Firelord I expected more from HEWSON.'

COMMENTS
Control keys: Left=Q, E, T, U, O Right=W, R, Y, I, P jump-CAPS SHIFT , Z, X, C, V, B, N, M, SPACE Pick up=H, J, K, L Drop=S, D, F, G Pause=A Pause off=A again Sound=ENTER (toggle on/off) Reset=BREAK
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair
Keyboard play: pretty good
Use of colour: pleasant
Graphics: well defined and nicely drawn
Sound: Amusing spot effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: half flip screens
General Rating: Not Hewson's best.

Use of Computer 68%
Graphics 68%
Playability 66%
Getting Started 72%
Addictive Qualities 66%
Value for Money 62%
Overall 65%