MEMORY

Main review

Right. I’ll be honest from the start. If you’re the sort of person who remembers the dates of everyone’s birthday’s, can recite 50 telephone numbers, remembers your wedding anniversary and can recall the slightest, insignificant, past detail or fact that you can use against your partner in the midst of an argument, then this game is for you. If, on the other hand, you’re the sort of person who keeps losing your car keys or who doesn’t know your own mobile phone number, or given the chance, would forget your own name, then avoid this game as you would avoid a cute, cuddly, fluffy kitten in the middle of the road – unless of course you have a fetish for turning cute, cuddly, fluffy kittens into road kill… anyway…

Created by Skoro Design of Assassins Crew from a Commodore 64 concept and released in 2002, Memory, as its title cunningly suggests and as you may have all ready surmised, is about using your memory. Very simply, each level shows you a patterned grid of shapes for a few seconds, before mixing everything up; you are then required to reconstruct the pattern that the computer displayed. You score points for completing a level while earning extra bonus points if completing the level within a “bonus time limit” – not to worry, the time limit is purely for those bonus points; you get as much time as you want to complete the level. You start with 15 lives and lose a life only if you “quit” a level, by pressing “Esc”, because you have forgotten the pattern and need to start the level again. To save on frustration and the need to play early levels over again, you are given passwords to access the later levels, once you have completed them.

Memory is reasonably well presented, the graphics are simple but colourful and convey the action well and the in-game music is pleasant enough as is the title-screen music. The intro screen music should come with a health warning however; beware the loud screeches and scratches that seek to wreak havoc with your eardrums, especially if like me, you listen through headphones.

With regards to my opening comments, personally I have a good memory so enjoyed the challenge in Memory. I can well imagine, however, some people becoming insane playing this so be warned! Games of this genre and type seem to be in great supply across many formats but this little Plus/4 game can hold its’ head up high amongst the crowd. A competent game and a decent challenge.

Second opinion

First impressions, why the head shot? I’ve come to the conclusion now, that “Skoro Designs” bases a lot of his graphics, layouts, etc. on demos. Again, like another Skoro title Cross Motor, you have that “decrunching”, which is again just like a demo, I know that is one way of getting the next part to load up, but surely a screen shot of another game by “Skoro Design” or something else might have been more appropriate…?

So, the first tune is very high-pitched and made me turn my speakers off, which is a shame because the other two tunes are more pleasant and would be missed if the user forgets to turn the sound on again. I did like the graphics on the next part (after it had decrunched) and it looked very c64 since the graphics were ported from a c64 but again, I have to say it looked like a demo with the rotating raster bars behind the Memory logo. Then to the main menu; graphically it’s very nice, the high score has a similar look to Shaun Southern’s Proof of Destruction and I like the simple effect around the “Memory – Game by Skoro ©2002”. So then I press fire to start, and nothing….doh, it is space…nice fade out of parts of the screen…

The main game is very simple, you see a display of shapes for approximately ten seconds and then they change and all you have to do is swap pieces around within the time limit to get the match, and it will see how good you “Memory” is. And that is it, although very simple, it is very addictive and it also gets harder as you progress but you do get a code so you don’t have to enter the same levels again and again…

If I still owned a Plus/4, I would definitely have this in my collection, it’s a game that more that one player can play as a group, with the others offering help.