¢SOFTWARE SCENE - FUTURA ISSUE 13¢¢¢SOS SATURN¢Supplier: ANG Sotware¢Price: 4.50 pounds + 2.00 pounds P&P¢ (Hide the money inside a disk¢ sleeve and send by registered¢ airmail!)¢¢Reviewed by Kevin Cooke¢¢¢ Have you ever wanted a game with the problem solving of Miecze Valdgira but the violence(!) of Operation Blood? If so, then want no longer, as there is now such a game.¢¢ I originally bought SOS SATURN at AMS7 from ANG themselves. Their selection of games seemed enormous... how should I know which were the best? As luck would have it, as I arrived at their stand I caught a glimpse of a game they were demonstrating to someone else. I only saw it for a few seconds but immediately knew that I HAD to have it. That game was SOS SATURN.¢¢ The first thing that struck me about SOS SATURN was the way in which it was presented. The red disk was in a standard disk sleeve, and stuck to the front of this sleeve was a small piece of paper showing a very good colour drawing. Tucked inside of the sleeve was a very small instruction sheet, and a map of the game. OK, the presentation was unusual (and the packaging sparse to say the least!) but it must have kept costs down and I'm certainly all for that! It seemed quite strange that a map was provided, but it was exciting to look at it and see where it was possible to go. Of course, the real test of a game has to be in how it plays, so I booted the disk up and waited for the game to load. The normally boring loading process was immediately made a little more enjoyable by a good loading screen depicting two huge dinosaurs with a man stood before them. I was soon hungry for more!¢¢ When SOS SATURN first starts, you notice straight away that the introduction text is in POLISH! "!*%$", I thought to myself as I tried, unsuccessfully, to decipher it. "Oh well, I'd better read the supplied instructions.... !*%$" - they were in Polish as well!¢¢ Giving up on the instructions, I skipped the introduction text and met with the title screen. This was mainly a text-only screen (again in Polish) except for an SOS SATURN logo at the top of the screen. I pressed the START button and was met with the actual game.¢¢ The first thing that struck me about this was the use of colour. The backround, coloured in different shades of brown, was very detailed, and your character is coloured in different shades of blue. Your character seems strangely big compared to many other games of this type - perhaps it is?¢¢ The play area itself is a smaller window on the screen. To the left of this is a graphical representation of each of the three people you get to control. If you lose a life, one person dissappears from here and the next takes over. When all three are gone, the game is over.¢¢ Throughout the game you are given the chance to pick up any objects you find. The only drawback is that you can only carry five at a time. Also, you don't seem able to drop them once you've picked them up - certainly a way to make the game that little bit harder! Any objects you are carrying are shown above the main play area.¢¢ Below the play area is a percentage counter which increases when you use an object correctly - a useful feature to know how well you're doing.¢¢ The game is basically a ladders and platform game but with one interesting feature - SUPERB enemies. These are practically all dinosaurs, and are all fully animated. They really are the most incredible monsters I have seen in a game - they really do surprise you when you first see them!¢¢ Luckily, your character is equipped with a heavy-duty machine gun. By holding down the fire button, you see the flash of the firing at the front of the gun and the character being shaken by the force of it - if that isn't realistic, I don't know what is! At first, you may think that this is having no effect, but keep you finger on the trigger and the enemies eventually explode into a cloud of smoke. Again, some excellent animation takes place here.¢¢ The whole graphical front of the game reminds me of ALIEN 3 on the Super Nintendo - if you've seen that and like it, you'll love this.¢¢ The music to the game is quite good, but the authors kindly provided a sound effect option instead which I generally prefer. The machine gun sound is my favourite - very realistic!¢¢ The biggest let-down of SOS SATURN is the fact that the object descriptions are all in, you've guessed it, Polish! Although it is possible to recognise some of the words, and the objects do have graphical representations, you certainly can't recognise all of them.¢¢ However, help is at hand. I was so annoyed at not being able to play this game to the full that I translated the instruction sheet and object descriptions into English. Details of how to get this sheet are at the end of this review.¢¢ With the translation sheet mentioned above, the game is eminently enjoyable - it's really keeping me occupied! The graphics really are excellent, and the places to use the objects aren't just found by trial and error - you should be able to realise why you have to use certain objects in certain places. The map was a nice inclusion and can give hints towards solving some of the puzzles, but the real fun of the game is in playing it. The gameplay is addictive with a capital 'A'!¢¢ Overall, I can't recommend this highly enough. I think it is brilliant and well worth the modest asking price. Well done to the programmers (Domain Software) for producing such a fun game, and to ANG for making it available at such a reasonable price!¢¢You can contact ANG software at:¢¢A New Generation Software,¢Ridderkerksestraat 60,¢3114 RK Schiedam,¢Netherlands.¢¢¢¢** Translation Sheet Details **¢¢ I am intending to send ANG a copy of my translated instructions and object descriptions to send out to any English-speaking people who buy the game in the future.¢¢ For those of you who have already bought the game (or if you aren't sent a copy of my translation sheet when you buy it) you can send direct to me for a copy. Send your original Polish instructions or the disk sleeve of your game to prove that you have actually purchased it and aren't using a copied version, and I'll send you a printout of my translation sheet free-of-charge. Remember to include a SAE big enough to fit in 2 A4 pieces of paper - a single first class stamp should cover the postage. (Anyone living outside of the UK will need to include an International Reply Coupon to allow me to send them a copy)¢¢Send your requests to:¢¢Kevin Cooke,¢36 Buddle Lane,¢St Thomas,¢Exeter,¢Devon,¢EX4 1JH.¢¢
