Bill & Ted's Ex. Adv.
MANUFACTURER: Atari PLAYERS: 2 STEREO: No RATING: 6 (6.5)
TYPE: Adventure COMLYNX: Yes BLINK: No

WHAT:Bill & Ted wander through time trying to rescue the princess(es)

HOW :This is a "run about and gather items" game. The two key elements are
musical notes and pages from Rufus' phone book, which allow players to
continue on to other segments of the game- basically they are success
meters. Also to be found are musical instruments, used for soothing wild
beasts,and sometimes to trade with other characters,keys and other misc-
ellaneous items.Overhead perspective is used throughout,with independent
scrolling screens for each player (in a one player game,only one charac-
ter is used).A sixteen character password will save the players location
and inventory for later playing. The game is much too large to finish in
one sitting. Some timing puzzles are extremely close.

SOAPBOX: Despite the repetitive nature of these types of games, this one
has some fairly innovative ideas. The time theme is used well (players will
have to leave items for themselves to find in the future, etc.) and even
the worn Bill & Ted "bogus" terminology is funny at times.The prob- lem is
that game play can be very frustrating in certain timing puzzles, resulting
in a lot of aggravation (at least for me). The rating of this game went
down after I had played it through some more, mostly because game play
involved lots of thumb action and not a lot of cranium work.