| 128 Software |  |
THE TIME WARP sounds rather out-dated now, and the game doesn't look so hot either.
Probably the only reason why CRL has bothered relaunching this 128 edition is so that it can add the sound from the Commodore 64 version. In practically all other respects nothing has changed.
The film, of course, was something of a cult hit, with cinema audiences going ape speaking the lines in unison, and throwing toast and confetti at the screen. Reduced to the confines of a Spectrum, even with 128K, what you get is a bunch of bizarre characters mouthing mumbo-jumbo - "That's not the candlestick you're holding" - which has minimal significance even if you've seen the movie.
The game is actually very simple. You are Brad - or Janet - and you must find the 15 pieces of the dismantled De-Medusa machine which are scattered around evil Dr Frank 'n' Furter's castle. The De-Medusa must be remantled if you are to save your beloved Janet - or Brad - from being turned into stone. Time ticks away as the castle, a disguised spaceship, counts down to lift-off.
The doctor's abode is populated by weirdos: Riff-Raff the butler, with his raygun; Magenta, his sister; Columbia the groupie; and Eddie, the rocking biker from the deep freeze. There's also Rocky Horror, a 'creation'.
Provided you take care not to step in front of Eddie or Riff-Raff, or Walk into the sparks in the gym, then the game boils down to a fairly routine matter of picking up keys and bits of the machine, unlocking doors and engaging in meaningless one-sided communication with the various loonies. It's not even mildly enlivened by losing all your clothes when you encounter Magenta.
This version has an added title sequence with four dancers doing the pelvic thrust to the strains of Let's do the Time Warp Again. The same tune plays continuously thoughout the game, accompanied by the odd squeak or two, until you turn the sound down on the TV in exasperation.
Good graphics, reasonable animation, tiresome music and monotonous gameplay; we gave it three stars when it appeared last summer, and there's little reason to change that rating. Strictly for the freaks.
| Bill Scolding |