The Legend of Myra

Never was a truer word said than the day some copyright lawyer came up with the epithet "a good game is worth writing more than once". The software industry seems to have taken this advice to heart in a major way. There can hardly be a publisher in the land who hasn't at least contemplated ripping off Tetris at one time or another. Second on the list of top ten plagiarisms has to be good old Breakout, and third, and the one which mainly concerns us here, is the classic Boulderdash.

The programmers of The Legend of Myra seem to have a particular affinity with the Boulderdash theme, since this is their second 'tribute' to it. The first attempt was the very competent Supaplex. In that game the emphasis was very much on problem solving, and some of the puzzles were very difficult indeed.

With Myra they've taken a completely different approach to the game and put the emphasis on fast reaction skills rather than problem solving. That's not to say that there aren't any problems to solve in this game, there are plenty, but they aren't as complex as those in Supaplex and there is another fundamental difference. Once you'd solved all the puzzles on a level in Supaplex. you'd done enough to finish it. Not so. with Myru. for even if you can see how a level should be solved, you've no guarantee that you'll finish it unless your reactions are as sharp as your mind.

It has to be said that, although the principle behind The Legend of Myra is far from original, this far from original, this version introduces a number of new features, some of which stop the frustration factor from spoiling the game, for instance the option to 'bust out' when you get trapped, at the expense of a life. Providing you're not a complete no-hoper at fast action games, and assuming you're not sick and tired of Boulderdash clones, then The Legend of Myra comes recommended.

The easiest way to give you the flavour of The Legend of Myra is to talk you through one of the early levels: Intro 7: Explosive Stuff!

1. You begin surrounded by cabbages, mines, and bombs. When mines fall they explode, destroying all the objects in the vicinity. While you can say good-bye to one or two cabbages without worrying too much, you need all those bombs, so you must be careful how you get round this area.

2. You've collected all the objects, but your exit is still blocked by those rocks. It's time to put your first bomb to good use. Drop it in the middle then run like a bat out of hell.

3. Coming to a dead end, it doesn't take a genius to work out that what's needed here is another bomb to clear a passage through to the lower chamber.

4. Be careful. If you go rushing in like a bull in a china shop, you'll end up coming a cropper with that fly. Throw the knife to get rid of it first. Then claim all the cabbages in this area.

5. Again we're trapped within an area and the only way out is to use a bomb. The best place for it is here because it fulfils two functions simultaneously. First it clears a way through for you, and secondly it causes the rocks to fall on the bat, killing it and turning it into useful cabbages.

6. After collecting the cabbages, you have another bat to deal with, but this one is easily dispatched by pushing the mine on top of it. Not only does it turn into cabbages, but some of them drop through the magic wall turning into stones and killing the two bats in the chamber underneath, which also turn into cabbages.

7. Now dash along the corridor, collecting the knives and entering the teleport, which takes you to this small chamber with more knives to collect and another teleport, which takes you to...