Universe - Core Design RRP œ34.99-œ39.99
      (Point and click graphic adventure for PC and Amiga)

            Reviewed by Janice Charnley on a 486SX-25

This point and click graphic adventure begins with hero Boris
Verne running an errand for his Mother. She asks him to take some
mail to Uncle George's house, so Boris sets off on his bike. Uncle
George's house resembles a laboratory filled with inventions,
which Boris just has to investigate. While his Uncle is out of the
room making a pot of tea, Boris ventures down the corridor and
finds a time machine. He can't resists sitting in it and twiddling
the knobs when, suddenly, he is catapulted into an alien universe.

Boris lands on an asteroid crowded with strange looking dwellings
and sees space craft flying to and fro. When he walks left from
the asteroid, along a service duct, he lands on a small
barren-looking planetoid. Here he can pick up a bent metal bar, a
piece of circuit board and rocks. Boris then has to jump onto a
spinning asteroid and from that onto the service duct of the
asteroid he first landed on.  After connecting the Gavric
Homeworld channel via the satellite dish, Boris will be able to go
north and meet more challenges and the lovely Silphinaa, who asks
you (Boris) to find her missing friend. You will find her friend
at the end of the adventure after finding a Power Gem and saving
the Universe from the evil Baron Kaleev, who intends to usurp
power from Neiamises the Emperor King.  The Power Gem is the only
means of wiping out Neiamises in order to prevent him becoming God
of this strange alien world.

The rather blue-tinted graphics are quite pretty but blurry and I
found myself constantly frustrated when the sprite became stuck
against the walls/scenery and would not move away again. There are
a total of 14 action icons, selected by clicking the right mouse
button and, if the program requires an object to be INSERTED or
COMBINED with another, just USING the object will not do! There
are a few arcade sequences in this game but they aren't very hard
and don't detract from the adventure.

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