Troddlers

Remember those little toy animals made of compressed sponge? You know, they expand magically on contact with water, rather like Angel Delight but without the taste? Well Troddlers are small creatures which, when wet spring to life and start scuttling aimlessly around the place, but with the added, if socially embarassing, novelty of transforming into lethal zombies. This is where, as a wizards apprentice named Hokus, you come in. Youre responsible for mistakenly unleashing thousands of the darlings and its up to you to fetch them back, providing a convenient, if thematically weak, excuse for a variation on the old, yet undeniably popular rescuing suicidal rodents game.

A walk around the block

The idea of each single-screen level is to direct the' Troddlers to a safe haven, represented by a doorway which is generally found in the most ludicrously remote location the programmers could think of. Oh, scream the masses, its a total Lemmings rip-off. But Nay, I scream right back, for, whereas it was possible to manipulate individual lemmings, you cant control any of the Troddlers. In fact, despite being a later game than Lemmings, its more limited. Youre in charge of Hokus with whom you must create stone blocks and build platforms with which to guide the Troddlers to the exit door, in the same way that the rolling ball needed to be assisted in Spherical. Unlike the lemmings, who minced nonchalantly to their doom over precipices and off platforms, the Troddlers take the far safer option of defying the laws of physics and walking up and down walls and across the bottom of blocks, making them slightly easier to guide away from danger.

All the usual bonuses for a game of this ilk are present. Bits of fruit which score points, extra time and blocks all help to make it a bit more interesting and, if you tire of the hundred or so levels of one player action, theres a simultaneous two-player option to boot. Actually, there are two of them. In the first you and a chum, controlling another inept wizard called Pokus, team up in a bid to save the Troddlers and kill the zombies. The second is more of a head-to-head affair, with Hokus and Pokus competing for the level.

But is it any good?

With all these options theres plenty to keep a player occupied, and the game remains quite addictive, even at its most frustrating - and Troddlers can be very frustrating indeed. This is partly because it takes a while to get to grips with the nature of the Troddlers themselves (the way they climb relentlessly all over absolutely everything that crosses their path) and partly because the control system is more than a bit irritating, its very easy to put bricks in the wrong place (or create when you want to destroy and vice versa) through pressing the keys in the wrong order or because youre standing a pixel out of place.

The graphics are pretty good, but nothing special, being mostly small sprites against colourful backdrops, and the sound is also acceptable in an irritating sort of way without being exceptional. This much is true of the package as whole; Troddlers wont be heralded by future generations as a classic which made critics go all dribbly and weak at the knees, because it owes itself so heavily to true pioneers, such as Lemmings and Spherical. But still, its fun, its addictive, and it provides lorryloads of longevity, so whos complaining?

Troddlers is toddling onto the Super NES with the help of Seika. This spunky Puzzle game features you as guardians Hocus or Pocus or both! Opt for the training mode, Hocus vs. Pocus, or the team-up mode. You must lead these lost guys to safety and it's quite a chore. The troddlers can walk on walls and even walk upside down. Hocus and Pocus must plan a blocking strategy to get the Troddlers to their exit.