Reviews

Too bad scrolling and movements to deserve a better score. The main character being so big is not excuse for it (see Thanatos, Trap Door, etc).

It's a pitty because I like eating people and smashing cars and buildings. I had tons of hype when this game was released, bought it, tried it, tried harder to like it, spent some time on it, but for no good. Nowadays I've loaded it again in an emulator to see if I could find it better now. Perhaps I just expected too much.

Full screen playing area, biggest sprite you've ever seen on speccy and still playable?

You can crush buildings of two screens high, eat people and breath fire (when you run out of fuel, just eat some fuel trucks) and destroy tanks with your tail.

"The muncher" has nice graphics, great playability and acceptable plot, but it's also a short, hard game with repetitive play.

Still it looks and play great, another game to play on zx spectrum.

1988 Gremlin Graphics Software (UK)
by Dave Moore and Rob Howard

It's impossible not to think of 'Rampage' while playing the 'The Muncher'. You get the same game but with a few differences. The most obvious one is the graphics, which are bigger and more colorful. Then you start moving and realize this is a side scrolling game. Like in Rampage, you play the role of a Godzilla like creature, you eat people and destroy buildings and stuff while being attacked in a way which dates to good old King Kong.

At first glance the game seems an obvious winner, with a particularly appealing idea, you play the bad guy which is also a monster. Godzilla fans rejoice! But the final product is somewhat uninteresting.
The scrolling is too slow to make the game enjoyable and this happens because of the obvious excess of moving characters and vehicles. The graphics which are such an important feature for a game like this, are also a bit disappointing, being sometimes too messy and unimaginative.

Still, although I think 'Rampage' looks better and plays slightly smoother, 'The Muncher' can be more entertaining because of the different sets in which the action takes place.
It's easy to blame good old ZX Spectrum limitations for slowish games likes these, but then you play 'Exolon' or 'R-Type' and you think twice.

I knew Rampage but I never played The Muncher before .

It was a very original idea back in the day but I just don´t fancy games where your character is so huge that it becomes an easy target so that your enemies can hardly miss a shot at you . And , quite sadly , this is the case with The Muncher . I just don´t know how to avoid the enemy .

The movements are slow and clumsy not to mention the painful scroll , the sound fxs are cute and so are the graphics , but these two aspects alone don´t make a good game, in my opinion.

2,5 out of 5 . :(

by Beam Software (Dave Moore, Rob Howard)

Big building destruction and little men eating was the thing in 1988, with games like Rampage and Ramparts, and The Muncher is another one in this streak, with the difference that is not a single screen thing like the two previously mentioned, and the sprites are not transparent, you've got a full coloured huge monster to create havoc and wreck a whole city, if not a whole nation (Japan), and to destroy humans, tanks and helicopter, themselves fully coloured. So, as you move the environment scrolls as you breath fireballs, punch, kick, jumping on rooftops and eating anything that moves. Which is not that bad.

3,75/5

As promised, this is the second game based of the old Chewits sweets alongside The Muncher Compo, this one being simply The Muncher. Written by two Aussie dudes for Gremlin, it's basically Rampage, you destroy buildings and eat people, what's not to like. Well it's pretty slow and the controls seem glitchy in that you tell him to do one thing and he'll do another things and also he'll do something even when you haven’t commanded him to do anything. There were a couple of times when I wondered if I was actually playing or if it had gone to a demo. Nice idea of a clone but it's executed pretty badly to be taken serious. Now you know why not many sweets got games based on them.