Bugaboo the Flea

Bugaboo (Quicksilva) features a likeable little flea (if that's not a contradiction in terms) which, due to some unfortunate time warp perhaps, has fallen through the inky spaces between worlds and ended up somewhere rather unpleasant. What will our micro nipper find there... will it ever survive? I had several goes at the game, reacting differently each time to it. Sometimes I felt sympathetic as the poor creature tried desperately to escape from its pursuers, sometimes an evil grin and a wicked heart triumphed as the poor fool smashed its head for the hundredth time. Love or loathing, there's always a strong feeling for the flea!

48K Spectrum
£6.95
Quicksilva

If you have ever had a dog you will know how agile the flea is. Bugaboo is a highly original new program which features an athletic yellow (lea of prodigious jumping ability. His task is to escape from the bottom of the screen to the exit at the top. Attempting to thwart his ambition is a vicious yellow pterodactyl which swoops around in menacing fashion.

One of the most attractive features of Bugaboo is its landscape; a multi-leveled collection of dark caves and jagged ledges, decorated with psychedelic coloured mushrooms and shrubs. Cursor keys allow you to scroll left and right, up and down, to view the prospects in store.

Controlling Bugaboo's leaps is a tricky business, not helped by the fact that the on-tape instructions are not very explicit. Since this is a Quicksilva game the packaging contains only a silly blurb, with possibly the most appalling rhyme ever written. Nonetheless, Bugaboo is one of the most interesting and enjoyable games to appear.