City Slicker

City Slicker

Console: Sinclair ZX Spectrum
TV Standard: Region Not Set
Developer(s): David Cooke, Steve Marsden
Publisher(s): Hewson Consultants Ltd.
Release Date: 1986-01-01
Players: 1
Co-op: No
Type: Action, Strategy, Platform

This is an arcade adventure about life in the capital of Britain. Abru Cadabbra decides to plant a bomb in the Houses of Parliament and emulate the action of Mr Fawkes all those years ago.

The game starts with the timeclock set at eight in the morning. The bomb is primed to go off at midnight so Slick only has a limited amount of time to get to the Houses of Parliament and defuse it. To do this he must find the parts of his Bomb Disposal Unit. When Slick finds a bit of the B.D.U. he must scamper back to his hide out underneath the houses of Parliament and deposit the part there. Apart from the pieces of B.D.U. there are also various other useful objects littered throughout the screens which Slick can collect and use to his advantage.

London certainly has some odd characters in it these days. From marauding Beefeaters to bottle lobbing Skin Heads, they're all there to hamper Slick in his mission. Each character has a different pattern in the game. They can open doors, throw objects, steal objects, follow Slick and generally hassle him every inch of the way. Every time Slick makes contact with a character in the game he looses some of his energy resulting in an inability to jump as high or as far as he could before. Some characters will even send him back to the start of the screen which he's currently exploring. Slick can also lose energy if he falls from a great height.

His energy can be restored by collecting various pieces of edibles which appear at intervals throughout the game. At the start of the game there are three pep pills at the bottom of the screen. If Slick's energy gets too low and there's no food in sight then he can take one of these pills to keep him going a bit longer.

Abru Cadabbra is a very crafty terrorist and obviously very keen that his plot should go ahead without any interruptions. He also roams around the City pursuing Slick and trying to catch him. If he succeeds in this then Slick dies and the bomb automatically detonates. An alarm sounds when Abru is about to enter the same screen as Slick.