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ROCK
'N' BOLT
Activision,
£10.99 cass, £19.99 disk, joystick only
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O
Slick, original puzzle with great music
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High
above the city streets Louie the construction worker
struts to the sound of a contemporary rock beat, in
this new arcade puzzle from Activision.
Girders
move back and forth and Louie needs to bolt them down
within a given time limit. For each girder he successfully
stops moving, he is paid a certain fee, depending on
the level of play.
If
he needs to undo a bolt for any reason, then his pay
(score) will decrease by more than he earned for bolting
it down. Once all the girders have been bolted down,
then he needs to get back to where he started in order
to move up to the next level.
There
are basically two different types of screen in Rock
'n' Bolt, alternating through 100 levels. In the
first you simply have to bolt everything down and get
back to the lift at the side of the building as quick
as possible.
In
the second type, you must bolt down girders to a specific
blueprint, as shown in the bottom right corner of the
screen, returning to the lift once finished correctly.
You
are given a time limit in which to complete each level,
and this becomes longer or shorter depending on which
level you're on. Once you finish one, the points awarded
for each successful bolting of a girder are increased.
You
can enter at one of three starting levels (1, 9 or 18).
On later levels the puzzle extends over several screens.
These screens are linked, but unfortunately don't scroll
to one another, they switch abruptly.
There
are three levels of difficulty: practice, easy and hard,
but these are only time orientated, not really giving
much other variation.
The
score and timer are displayed on screen in 3D -- the
first time I've seen this. Louie himself looked as if
he's wearing a turban, but he's well defined for a multicolour
sprite, and exceedingly well animated -- watching him
walk and spin is very amusing. The colours used were
fitting and attractive on both sprite and background.
Sonically
Rock 'n' Bolt is incredible - some of the most
outstanding music yet on the 64. Activision have really
done themselves proud this time, and there can't be
much more to be squeezed out of the SID chip. Other
sound effects are great too - just listen to that guy
spin.
Despite
all these good points, I'm afraid the game is still
somewhat flawed. Gameplay is interesting and enjoyable
to start with, but it fades due to there not being enough
variety.
GP
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