Motos & Plexar

About half of a good loading screen here, as your moe-toe takes flight

MOTOS

(M.A.D. Games, 1987)

Is it Moe-Toes or Moe-tos? This was a Namco coin-op, so came from the land of the rising sun if that helps. The first one sounds right to me, although your own ship seems to be the only moe-toe around that I can see. Interesting, isn't it? No? And totally moot since this article is written, not spoken? I see.

It'll be a brave moe-toe who's willing to jump onto Pac-Man's power pill island here

Whatever it's called, it was written by Binary Design, who surveys show wrote most Spectrum budget games. So we're in safe hands it seems. And most of Mastertronic's "Added Dimension" titles tended to be those they deemed too good to give away for just 199 paltry pennies, so were mostly quite palatable. Except for all the ones that weren't. Actually quite a few. Moving on...

Here's where you choose your parts. 2 jumps but no powers. Uh oh

You have to clear solar bases of space bees by bumping them off the edge into the endless void. I thought we were meant to be saving the bees? You can get extra power parts to give your ship more oomph and extra jump parts so you can clear gaps and get yourself out of tight spots. This tends to crack the floor though, which sounds expensive and is usually fatal. As time goes by the baddies get fatter and harder to shove off, so that's where your power parts come into play. Erm, ooer?

Argh, stop all that jumping will ya? The place is coming apart...

This game might not look like much, but it is much. Very much. From the off it has an authentic arcade feel with great music, neat colourful graphics and that font all arcade games seemed to have. But even better is they've got the physics spot-on too, as your ship acts just how it should. And I know 'cos I've driven a lot of spaceships in my time.

Your best bet here is to try to stay central and get bounced off everything in sight

When you're trying desperately to knock off a rather heavy foe, you really feel up against it and have to make good use of your add-ons to get anywhere at all. It's great addictive fun and a bit of a stealth budget classic by my reckoning.

Plans for Birkenhead's new town centre are coming along nicely

PLEXAR

(M.A.D. Games, 1987)

Another ravin' M.A.D. game from '87 now. The Roads Of Plexar, to give it its full monicker, came from Paul Hargreaves, who also gave us Tantalus, Terminus, Glass and Strontium Dog. 3 out of 4 ain't too shabby on balance. It was inspired by Trailblazer, which I've not played, but looking at the RZX run-through, it looks insanely fast. Plexar is I think a more sedate old man's version of same. Which is a relief all round.

Stage 1 sees our ball bounce along at speed. Mind the gaps

The Plexarians like to send hapless victims along the Crystal Roads to appease their deities (stoopid gits). You have (been) volunteered to go next, so off you roll! You make your hazardous way along roadways, then across towers, then onto the next area. Oh, and you're a ball by the way.

Stage 2 only moves when you do thankfully. Different squares do different things

First you bounce at speed along roadway 1. You can't do too much wrong here, except lose a small amount of health if you hit any holes. Then you have another 3D roadway bit which is more of a puzzly number. You can take a bit more time over that one. Do that and you're onto an overhead view of the tower, where you must choose your path wisely and avoid various nasties. This bit's like a non-bouncy version of good old Bounder.

Stage 3 drops a D to become 2D. Roll your way up avoiding the round baddies

There's a decent amount of game here for your £2.99 (equivalent to £99.99 these days). Each part has its own points of interest and difficulty, and it's quite a challenge. It looks excellent, with some great visuals, especially when you've got the 3D path ahead of you on both top and bottom of the screen.

Do not adjust your set, you're just on a weird red planet

It's clear that a lot of care has gone into it, and that's always a great thing to behold when you've gone and taken a punt on a skinflint special. Long may your path be smooth on your rolly way to Plexar itself, god speed little ball.

M.A.D. MARKS

MOTOS 90% PLEXAR 85%