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"Welcome to The Crystal Maze where I'll be leading an intrepid team who will be pitting their wits and skills against the many devious challenges that await them inside The Crystal Maze. Now, if they are skillful or just very, very lucky they may win the odd Time Crystal or two. The more crystals they win, the more time they can have in the Crystal Dome behind me where they could win something... rather average."
In the valley of the hosts he who is Richard O' Brien is king. Unfortunately there's no Richard here so what's the game like?
Well, you're given a choice of difficulty level (ranging from 0-99) which affects amount of time given and amount of stuff to do within and you're given a choice of twelve players, each one who specializes in certain types of games (and there really is a difference as well. And for complete authenticity you can choose whether to go clockwise or anti-clockwise around the zones. Good.
But what is the core of the game like? Well, you choose your first zone (or you can pick randomly - the game was made after the change so you're given the choice of Aztec, Ocean, Medieval and Futuristic) and you're given a little picture of the zone. Nicely, the music is very authentic between zones (Zack Laurence's Force Field) and when faced with the zone overview picture you're given sound effects in the background (Bleeps for Futuristic, water for Ocean - you get the idea) then you choose a player and a type of game - Physical, Skill, Mental or Mystery.
Sadly, it's here where the game takes a turn for the worse. Each of the physical games are very shoddy platformers where your character has to get to the crystal whilst avoiding certain objects (otherwise losing the game). Your charcter is soooooo slllloooowwwww and the actual control over him/her is fairly weak. Not a good start then.
However, a few of the other games are actually quite good fun.
Skill games are usually based on the show. In Aztec for example you have the virtually unplayable 'Gag the Gods' game (which I can't do for the life of me) but you also get the 'Catch the balls in the tube as they fall down the Pyramid' which works really well. Other Skills include guiding a ball along a plank (easy and dull), hitting moving targets with arrows (good) and guiding some electons round a course (which is surprisingly addictive!)
Mental games are also taken from the show with a few exceptions. You get 'Match the Pairs' in Ocean World (Concentration whatever)which works well. However, I find I can't be bothered with 'Extinguish all the lights' and the Magic Square game. Aztec incudes Pebble Solitare and an odd 'No adjecent coulour or shape' game. Sadly, some of these will irritate you immensely. Why cant' you take out all the blocks and put them back where you want instead of having to swap all the time? Why can't I stop sliding tiles in the '7 Down to 7 Across' game? What's the point? This said however, the Sliding Octoupus Puzzle and the Concenteration game are good fun but the rest lack common sense.
Finally Mysteries and again, they seem to miss the point most of the time. Mumsey is quite good but the rest seem to boil down to Treasure Hunts on a single picture and every time you click wrongly, 15 seconds mysteriously vanishes which unless you are able to read the clocks (which are very nicely done incidentally) means you're going to get locked in with alarming regularity (Note to Windows 95 users: To get out of a game press Esc THEN Control overwise you'll just revert back to windows.).And there is a game in Ocean world which basically boils down to a game of 'Hotter and Colder' with five seconds being taken away every time you select wrongly. Why?
Lastly, there is the Crystal Dome where you try and collect the gold tokens before time runs out. This bit is good fun and if you're playing with several people is even better (you can send certain people in at a time with every token being worth the amount of people inside). Then the tokens are counted up. Have you got over a hundred? If you have you get a nice picture . And that's it (other than the Hi Score Table).
So, very nicely presented but the actual game itself lacks something. So why don'tI complete pan it? Becuase play with a couple of people as a team and it becomes strangely fun, just don't expect anything as enjoyable as the real show.
Verdict: 4.5/10 - Well, it's cheap isn't it? Fairly fans only.
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