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RUPERT has been left behind by his pals, who have gone off for a taste of ginger beer and cream buns at the Toymaker's party.


Ravenous beast that he is, Rupert just has to get to all that food and you can help him past the guards and into the castle where the party is held. Just guide him through the eight levels, picking up the invitations which his friends have left behind to guide him on his way. When you have picked up all the invitations on one level, you can move through to the next.

Each level consists of four linked screens, which in turn have three floors. You can jump on barrels, potted plants and staircases to move up to new floors. If one of the soldiers or birds collides with you, Rupert will be forced down to the ground level again.

In each section of the castle you have a limited number of lives which Quicksilva has decided to call Tumbles. The number you have will depend upon the level of difficulty. If you run out of tumbles you will be abruptly marched off the screen by a soldier. Disgraceful!

Rupert must be starving if he insists on being submitted to the gruelling tests of the Toymaker's castle. Why won't the guards let him into the castle? Has he collected enough invitations? Where is he putting them all? Why is a grown-up playing this game? Those are not the sort of questions which young children will ask and Rupert is a game for the kids.

They might find that it is almost impossible to get off the third screen, or that the graphics are fairly simple, but that might not bother them.

The game is a disappointment, I used to be an avid Rupert fan and his appearance in this game is not how I remember him.


Publisher Quicksilva Price £7.99
Memory 48K Joystick Kempston, Sinclair
****

John Gilbert

RUPERT THE BEAR AND THE TOYMAKER'S PARTY
Quicksilva / £7.99

Rick: Hey, this one is really weird man! See, there's this bear who wears these wacky yanky golfing pants and he can walk, jump and - wait for it - climb the stairs. But he doesn't drink lager, well this is one for the kids, innit?
Rupert (that's the bear's name kids) has got to collect his many invitations to see his even weirder friends Bill the Badger and Podgy the Pig - you know one of those parties! Well Rupert needs more invitations than Podgy's had hot dinners, and not only that, naughty toy soldiers and toy trains try to trip him up along the way, though some will be very good sports and help him. They'll need to 'cos you have to go through four linked screens for each of the eight levels.
Unfortunately Rupert also has an embarrassing speech impediment which means all the screen instructions are in dum-di-dum rhyming couplets which will maim many an innocent ear to the power of poetry.
The toymaker's castle, its corridors and castellations were presumably built by Barrett - or does that reflect the quality of the graphics? Rupert does look quite a lot like he did in the comic, though some wish he'd stay there. Oh, and he still wears that scarf to hide his love bites.
Quicksilva hasn't aimed so much at the mega-tots but their spinster aunts who feel that if Toby or Fenella have to have one of those awful computer games then this safe, competent platform game is the one to get. I'm afraid though that little Toby will be out on the corner with that vulgar Wayne doing a deal for a quick Buck Rogers. 4/10
Ross: Frankie goes to the toymaker's party in this cute number. Not as good as the (dare I say it?) Commie version, but it'll do. 6/10
Dougie: Frankly, I'd still prefer a copy of the annual in my Christmas stocking. 4/10