| A wise man once said, 'It is a brave man that shall jump over the toilet in Eugene's Lair. For the long road to the Final Barrier is a road fraught with Mutant Telephones!' |
| Or maybe he didn't. It could quite possibly have been a dream. But when you're a mere seven years old these kinds of things can be expected. It was 1983 and the high-tech, sophisticated circuitry of the rubber-keyed Speccy 48k was on fire as it crunched the 0s and 1s that made up Matthew Smith's all-time classic Manic Miner. | | Almost 20 years on and Miner Willy's explorative adventure deep into the earth's core can now be embarked upon again via the Game Boy Advance. | | Featuring a twenty-first century visual and aural makeover, the GBA re-release of Manic Miner retains the tightly balanced platform basis and level design of the 1980s original, and adds 10 all-new stages. Purists will be pleased to know that this comes in the form of an Enhanced Game option, with the Original Game option available as well. | | For those of you uneducated as to the proceedings in Manic Miner, the game structure is based around a series of platform-filled stages, populated by an array of hazards. Deadly assailants, such as fast-moving toilets, strange aliens and evil penguins, patrol set routes within each stage. Willy must negotiate platforms, avoid contact with the bizarre assailants, collect a number of keys and make it to the exit before a limited air supply expires. | | This version is extremely faithful to the original, so will no doubt please Matthew Smith devotees everywhere. It also was, and still is, a great game, and therefore should appeal to the GBA generation who have probably never heard of the adventures of Miner Willy |
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