XOR (Spectrum) - 927 - ACE Issue 1 (Oct 1987)

SUPPLIER LOGOTRON VERSION TESTED SPECTRUM REVIEWER ANDY WILTON

IF you just like high-speed mindless blasting games, you wont enjoy this one too much. Not that XORs dull mind you - its infuriatingly addictive and can get very tough in places - but you'll really need your thinking cap on to get anywhere.

You control two shields. Magus and Questor on their journey through a series of 15 fiendish mazes. You can move your current shield up, down or sideways, or switch control from one shield to the other. The shields have identical properties but often start a maze a long way apart - so they're both needed.

In each maze there is a set number of masks; collect them all, and that unlocks the maze exit. Get either shield to the exit and you're onto the next maze. Of course, the masks aren't always easily accessible. As you work your way through to the later mazes you'll find various kinds of object in your way. At first these are just the maze walls themselves and the game's two kinds of forcefield, but you'll soon come up against a tougher pair of obstacles - fish and chickens.

Given the chance, fish fall downwards and chicken run to the left. Often you'll find them resting on masks or forcefields, poised to fall/run as soon as these are removed. They may well block your way to a mask if they do this, or trap your shield. They can even kill you if you get in the way, so great care is needed; you don't get any extra lives, so a death usually means restarting the maze you were on.

Once you've got the hang of chickens and fish separately, you're then faced with the two used together. The resulting chicken-fish formations can be very dangerous indeed; one wrong move and animals fly in all directions!

With care you can 'disarm' these formations, nudging fish or chickens aside to safely remove masks from within. The thinking involved here would tax the mightiest of brains, with interlinked formations two or three screens high. One false move can drop a fish on your head, wall you in or bury a vital mask.

It's horrendously tricky stuff, and there's plenty more where that came from with bombs, transporters and cute little dolls adding to your problems on later levels. XOR is infuriatingly difficult at times, but always maddeningly addictive. An action replay feature lets you review a failed attempt on a maze and (you hope) see where you went wrong.

The graphics may look a little simple but they scroll nicely and serve their purpose perfectly well. The point of course is the puzzling, and that grips like a vice.