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review - from the rubber beermat, online zine, 16th december 2oo4
the following review can be read in full at:
the rubber beermat.@ www.therubberbeermat.co.uk
hop n chop is a marvellous blend of ideas all rolled into one still-on-sale budget release from cronosoft. (ie you can't just download it from wos).

i bought the tape version at the beginning of december [2oo4] and i'm very impressed. i do have some qualms with hnc though nothing that would scupper it.

you play jack lumber (who looks more like bub from rainbow islands than the square-jawed bloke on the inlay) who works for the log company. the idea is that he has to go around each landscape chopping down trees, avoiding nasties and collecting various bits n bobs before the timer runs out.

once jack has completed three days' work at one branch of the log co, he'll get transferred to another, more difficult branch. this will happen four times and then he'll get 'rewarded generously' - according to the instructions (i have yet to get that far).

at the very basic level, hnc is equivalent to a nintendo game & watch title (or even cavemania, another shaw brothers game). except hnc is vastly superior.

first impressions are good. there's a pleasant loading screen to keep you occupied until the game has loaded. you'll then see the welcome page. this provides you with a few options, including checking out the graphics for the collectables, bad-guys and basic scenery (and a plug for other shaw bros. games). slight niggle as that you can't ever get back to this page once you press space. but that's very minor point. (graham shaw has since explained to me that this section of memory is over-written once you get into the game itself, so that's why you can't get back to that page)

once you start the game properly you'll immediately notice how colourful it all is. there's colour-clash but it's not that obvious. as all the sprites are white, you don't end up with a screen that looks like a kids' paint set.

in addition to being colourful, the graphics are detailed. the bombay ducks drops yellow eggs at you, the missiles you fire back are colourful and every sprite is animated. jack is a bit of a mover with his actions being quite subtle. when he's chopping the tree, jumping around, sliding down slopes he performs them with an appropriate animation. thankfully none of this detracts from the actual gameplay itself.

each level has a set number of trees you need to chop down. your axe can only deal with four swings before it needs to be re-sharpened. this adds a bit of frantic strategy to the game as you run around trying to find the axe-sharpener. whilst avoiding the nasties, their projectiles and managing not to fall off the platforms you're trying to jump across.

and then there's the time limit. oooooh the time limit's harsh. you've got no time to stand around and admire the scenery (as nice as it is) though there is enough 'padding' to allow for a couple of mistakes.

something else you'll notice when you first start playing is the pause when you go between screens. it's one or two seconds at the most but it's quite obvious. you'll soon get used to it. the reason for this is due to the way the screen is built up in the spectrum's memory. the shaws did this so that hnc was a one-load game ( again, with thanks to graham shaw for imparting this information to me).

the final point which is a bit confusing is the jump button. you can't redefine the keys (though they're sensibly set as qaop and space) and the jump key is a. up, as in 'going up the slopes' is q. this goes against the grain for most gamers.

why the two functions ('up' and 'jump') can't be accessed by the same key is beyond me (i'm not a programmer, so there could be a rational explanation for this). whilst you're in the thick of the action, you can press q to jump and nothing happens, which is a bit disorientating. thankfully, like most things, this is learnable and you get used to it.

once you complete a level you get to play the sub-game. this has you jumping back and forth over a river collecting stars (see screenshot ot the left). the more stars you collect, the more likely it is for you to get an extra life. however should you fall in the water, you lose a life. a neat touch is that the time limit set for the sub-game is determined by how much time you had spare after completing the level.

and then you move onto the next day (or level). the scenery changes once you have completed day three of each branch. and as of yet i've not quite got that far (*ahem*).

you do want to keep at it; playing the first game or two gets you familiar with the layout and the various nuances hnc provides. after then you're determined not to let the bees stop you, to get as far into the game as possible before your lives run out. etc.

hop n chop is challenging without being too frustrating. at first it's a little annoying when you kill all the sprites on a screen and they reappear once you return back to the screen but i that adds to the 'franticness' of the game. jack handles well, once you've overcome the 'a is the jump key' issue, collision detection is spot on and importantly it's just fun to play.

overall, hop n chop is a fantastic, original budget game. it's a bit special for me as it's one of the first new games i've bought for my spectrum in over a decade. that aside, hop n chop is a great game. go on and buy hnc, load it on your ageing speccy and enjoy.


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