Look: 6/10 Very hard to discern what I am supposed to collect and what I am supposed to avoid. The enemies and crystals alike are vague pixels on the ground.

(The little face things on the ground are don't-touch, and the microchip looking things are yes-touch, by the way. haha)

Sound: 6/10 No

Play: 6/10 I was supposed to have a productive day today for "irl" stuff, yet I also had trouble getting this game to work last night so I wanted to try it again today. Sure enough, it worked like a charm now, and being a Manic Miner type platformer, of course I had to get a taste of it. The gameplay starts out confusing, mostly due to the look, tho I was instantly interested in the concept and platformer-with-end-goal quality. I like how high I can jump, but it's still rudimentary even for its time: no control mid-jump, a set distance every time, and separately, some clunky movement mechanics. But as we all know, any time I have a new early platformer... I can't just playtest it ugh. Why do I do this to myself ha, I'm so eager for NES era and PS1 era, and I am here spending hours on what are basically Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy clones heh (albeit this one with a Dr. Who type concept). Welp, here goes nothing again heh. Another day devoted to afk'ing OldSchool Runescape while I play an early platformer (and I wanna try out Thayer's Quest, tho I never got the other laserdisc games to work I hear it has a proper arcade release which should work on MAME yay). Anyway, as I kept playing more and more, I noticed the usual annoying "fall too far and die" feature that is super vague and unclear, you can drop to the next platform sometimes, can't jump down one platform typically (why?), etc. Hate that feature of these early platformers. Especially since they're deliberate: they had to code that in. That was not the best part of Manic Miner, sorry lol. Oh, and tacky that you move so slowly with no way to speed up (nor did the designers accommodate with the enemy speeds... right from the beginning, mind you).

Feel: 7/10 Completely and utterly unforgiving: from the very first screen, there are exact-moment jumps and drops and no easing in of mechanics. I know some people take pride in that, but I call that poor game design: this isn't a sequel to its inspiration, Manic Miner, it's its own game--design it as such. I appreciate so much that there's no time limit factor or "oxygen"/"fuel" etc like a lot of platformers from this era: just let me enjoy the gameplay and get to know the levels without having to abuse savestates by saving at the start of each level! I did eventually have to start using savestates, but it was quite generous with my initial lives and I only started using them at the start of each time zone (and the start of some screens near the end) once I reached the last 2 lives. I would have never known the amount of Crystals to collect or that "next stop: alpha centauri" means I'm at the end, if it weren't for an online video heh.

Attachment: 6/10 One of the less enjoyable Manic Miner wannabes. Prides itself too much in the annoying parts of that platformer style, while distracting from the enjoyable parts like timing jumps and quick dodges. Disappointed I spent this much time on it, and wasn't motivated enough to finish it.

Completion: All crystals through Time Zone 3 Playtime: ~2 hours