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The aim of the game is to defend the parliamentary seat of Pendell by choosing your manifesto from given points, within 10 days and with a budget of £5,000 and any donations you may collect along the way. In other words Election is a strategy/options game.

At the start of the game you must select the party you wish to represent, Tory, Labour, Alliance; and then choose three of the points offered for your manifesto. You are shown what points the two other parties are campaigning on. Pendell is split up into 24 streets, and the political colour of Pendell can be seen as the streets are listed showing how many houses support the various parties. From then on the game offers up the usual allowance of options such as attending meetings in different streets, where value points are provided for you to use in answering questions tabled. You may rent billboard space in specifically offered streets, or buy advertising space in the local newspaper.

Then there's the street by street canvassing, when you may choose how many to visit in a day. When renting billboard space, attending meetings or canvassing, the program informs you of the political colour of the street in question. In between the campaign activities, various random disasters can strike such as your campaign manager running off with the funds. When the 10 days are up, it's time to sit back and watch the votes come in, street by street.



CRITICISM
'Standing for parliament is one thing but defending a seat in an unresponsive town like Pendell is another matter. This game seems to have been put out unfinished and it's very uninteresting and very boring. I wonder whether the programmer ever played this game...'

'For £1.99 this must be one of the best value for money games I have seen. The election simulation is rather absorbing and addictive. Several correct political opinions a re in there, like Common Market, defence, unions etc. It really is a good game, I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the subject of low budget games such as this, I would say that the text type simulation would usually be the best value for money as low budget games are rarely written in machine code for super smooth graphics, so the BASIC type which do not rely on graphics, like this one, are better suited. '

'Electron actually seems interesting for the first few minutes, but then it becomes tedious. You are following the same limited number of options time after time for ages. A day seems to take forever, but the worst isn't over. When the game is complete and you 'sit back' to watch the results coming in, the twenty four streets take almost 15 minutes to complete. 15 minutes when all you do is sit back and yawn. I really can't see this being thought of as exciting - after all, it is a simulation, not reality, and therefore has little of the real excitement attached to an election, and no justification for the long wait.'

COMMENTS
Control keys: general entry
Use of colour: generally uninteresting
Graphics: mainly text with small characters for houses
Sound: poor
Skill levels: 1
Originality: election games are hardly new, and this one has little to offer apart from the long election day sequence
General Rating: Two reviewers thought it a waste of time, one thought it above average to good.

Use of Computer 40%
Graphics N/A
Playability 28%
Getting Started 35%
Addictive Qualities 38%
Value For Money 45%
Overall 37%