Space Giraffe: Holy llamas!

Jeff Minter and his array of psychedlic shoot-em-ups have been constant companions throughout my time as a gamer, and it looks as though his latest is a sure-fire winner.

I found out about Space Giraffe by sheer chance today while scouring around the Lemon 64 dedicated to old games from the Commodore C64.

After all, while games like Left4Dead and Half-Life 2 remain the pinnacle of PC gaming for me, combining solid graphics with great gameplay/storytelling/all-of-the-above, Mr Minter's titles always used to strip back gameplay to pure shoot-em-up joy.

I remember when I first got my Commodore C64 in December 1982 and looking through a booklet with the latest games titles. Minter's titles, with names like Gridrunner and Attack of the Mutuant Camels always stood out, the first with it's similarity to Bladerunner, the latter because it sounded so surreal.

But it was always the gameplay which drew you back time and again.

Just take Attack of the Mutant Camels. Okay, it was a reworking of the scenes from The Empire Strikes Back with Luke's snowspeeder taking on a procession of increasing aggressive AT-ATs. But it was fast, addictive and thrilling to play.

Similarly, Gridrunner was hard as you progressed, but it was addictive because it was fair as you lost your lives to increasingly maddening waves of enemies.

And then there was Iridis Alpha. A game that I first read about in Zzap! 64 and then played at my friends' house, it was the combination of lightning-fast gameplay and the introduction of entropy into a game that sucked me in for months of gaming.

It was the hope of being able to find an updated version of the game - in the same way that there are PC versions of games such as Wizball - that drew me back to the Llamasoft website. There isn't a version of the 80s game, but I did find a demo copy of Space Giraffe, a title which has pretty much sucked me in.

To be honest, I've literally only been playing two hours so I can't really work out what's going on yet, but it's a hell of a lot of fun.

From what I can tell, you play a spacebound giraffe who must take on waves of aliens using your directional cannons or by ramming them.

As with all Llamasoft titles, there is a huge emphasis on strobing lights and psychedelic blasting, along with touches which could only come from Mr Minter himself.

There appears to be quite a stiff learning curve, but there is a logic to the difficulty levels in maintaining the addictive, 'I'll just have another go at beating the level this time'.

But there is also a pacing to the shooting, which I'm still trying to get my head around.

What else can I say? It's too early for me to explain quite why this title has got under my skin, but anyone who loves their gaming fast and frenetic, but paced at the same time, it's a must. It's similarly indespensible for anyone who has ever loved any of Mr Minter's substantial backcatalogue.