Product Name

 Litil Divil

 Brief Description 
 
   Puzzle/Arcade action game - you control a guy named Mutt;
   Mutt has been sent on a quest for a pizza in a maze with different
   levels and no one has ever made it out yet!
   
 Publisher

  Gremlin Interactive Software
  Carver House
  2 - 4 Carver Street
  Sheffield
  England S1 4FS
  (0114) 2753423
  
 Copy protection

  None
  
 Cost 

  approximately $42 US  (mail order price)

 Special requirements

  CD32 only game
  It appears to work fine in PAL and NTSC modes on my NTSC CD32.
  
 Review
   
     This game has been out for some time now;  I think in some respects it
 is a ground breaking game for its artwork alone. The game play is another 
 story.  I myself had been eagerly awaiting this game.  I have had it over 
 a month now.  I have managed to get to the second level.  The premise of 
 the game is you control a little red guy called Mutt.  Mutt is on a quest 
 to find a Pizza.  The pizza is somewhere in a maze with 5 levels.  The 
 levels consist of hallways and rooms.  Each room is unique; some are 
 variations on a theme.  You control Mutt with the CD32 control pad thing.
 Mutt is little red guy with short wings and horns; hence the title 'Litil 
 Divil'.  You start out each level at the edge of a bridge spanning a
 chasm.   To get past the bridge you have to defeat a big troll who is 
 armed with a club.  Mutt is armed with a staff of wood.  It is basically 
 a bit of arcade a style mini-game.  The animation is really quite good   
 here.  There are so many frames of animation that the action is quite   
 fluid.  Obviosuly, the artists behind his game know how to animate things.
 after you defeat the Troll, you can enter the maze.  I should mention the 
 mini game is presented from a side view.  
     When in the actual maze, the view is like something like the classic 
 Dungeon Master.  You have the perspective of being in a maze with Mutt 
 centered in the view.  There is a bar indicating Mutt's health.  As soon 
 as you are in the maze, Mutt's health will start to go down.  When
 Mutt runs out of health - game over.  You are presented with Mutt getting
 tossed in a magically conjured hole in the maze by the game's villain;
 some guy called the Entity.  But there is food in the form of apples,
 cheese and other things in the maze scattered about. There is also gold;
 gold is very important because to complete some of the obstacles in the 
 mazes Mutt will often need some sort of weapon or item and to get said 
 item you go to a shop to buy it - how convenient.  You have got to wonder 
 about how come so many games have shops in them where everyone is out to 
 kill you.  How do these shopkeepers make a living?   Well, you never 
 actually see the shopkeepers in Litil Divil; if you enter one of the shop 
 rooms, you are presented with whatever items are available.  This is 
 part of the puzzle aspect of the game; you have to figure out through 
 trial and error what item is needed in which room.  Once you the have the 
 approraite item in some rooms they are automaticlly used or you have to 
 use them by pressing the blue button on the controller.  As well, in the 
 corner of the screen when exploring the tunnels, there is a autmap showing
 where you currently are.  Gremlin was also kind of enough to provide 
 some graph paper with the game to make maps.  And thoughout the tunnels
 are pits, flame thrower, and other things that get in your way.  You have
 to make Mutt jump around a great deal in some parts of the tunnels.  There
 a waste of time and mostly just cause Mutt to lose a lot of health
 are some tunnels that are because of the perils.
     The other way to regain energy is if sucessfully complete a room;
 also if you leave a room without completing it your engery will drop down.
 When a room is completed the room is gone from the maze. Sometimes when
 you complete a room, a new part of the maze is opened up.
     There are many types of rooms, some are puzzle games where you have 
 to repeat sequences; others you have to fight something and defeat it
 to get past. And some involve pulling ropes and levers to get to the  
 right combination to advance.  There are something like 50 rooms to 
 explore.  Some rooms are downright stupid because skill does not have
 does not have much to do with it seems like if you stumble around long
 enough you will finish them or you won't.  But the graphics are great; 
 that is one of things that appeal to me in this game is the variety of
 different rooms and creatures you encounter in them.  It keeps in 
 interested in playing the game.  Gremlin have gone the distance with the 
 artwork in this game.  You encounter things like mermaids, witches, sumo 
 wrestlers fire breathing trees (yes, fire breathing trees).  The rooms
 are presented from various angles.  Some rooms are bigger than the screen 
 size and scroll around if neccessary.  The background art for the rooms 
 are often superb.  You have to be bit patient to play this game because 
 you end up having to do things over and over and over again to sucessfully
 get past some obstacle.  
     There is a save feature in 'Litil Divil' but you can only save what
 level you are on.  Say you are halfway through level 2, you can only 
 save the game at the beginning of level 2.  Which is frustrating because
 you have to do everything all over on that level again if you continue
 a saved game.  This is not Gremlin's fault; it comes down to the lack of
 of non volatile RAM in the CD32.  A lot of games have suffered because 
 of this.  The manual for 'Litil Divil' claims that it will take advantage 
 of an expanded CD32 for saving game but it does not say how.  I was 
 playing the game with a SX-1 attached to the CD32 and nothing special 
 occured when I tried to save the game.  The SX-1 has an internal hard 
 drive.
     I have not finished the game; I do wonder if I will ever find the  
 pizza.  I hope there is some sort of end sequence in the game; one would
 think so; I myself like to see some kind of animation or fanfare if I
 sucessfuly complete a game.  (note:I am back on level 1 trying to get  
 past this room; I had erased my saved game a while ago inadvertantly)
 This game may not be to everyone's tempermant but if you don't
 get too easily ticked off by wandering through tunnels and stupid rooms 
 and you appreciate good animation this must be a game for you.  I think 
 this game is something of an achievement for its artwork.  It shows that 
 Gremlin took some time to design the artwork and rooms in this game but 
 as I have said many of the puzzles in the room are hard to get past and 
 not very fun to repeat over and over to get through them.  I would look 
 forward to sequel to this game.  This game shows the potential for the 
 CD ROM format.   'Litil Divil' is basically an interactive cartoon. 
 
 Control 
 
      For the most part the game control is fine using the game pad.
 But on some rooms it is a little awkward to precisely control
 Mutt.  The problem is worse with rooms that are isometric views
 at some faked perspective.
 
 Sound
 
      The sound and music are fabulous.  'Litil Divil' has some of the
 best music I have ever heard in a computer game.  The music
 is played from CD tracks.  Mutt does not really talk but he make
 all kinds of noises when he gets hurt or does something.  In one
 room if you complete it he looks at you and makes a snickering
 laugh.  The sound and music really add to game making it that
 much richer.
 
 @Sound@: 9
 @Graphics@: 9.5
 @Gameplay@: 6
 @Lastability@: 6 
 @Value@: 7
 @Overall@: 7.5