The Session V1.4

Reviewed by Richard Bayliss

‘Session’ is a strange puzzle game, written by More Gore Software. The game consist of loads of levels, a level editor and also a good choice of music.

When loading the game, I have noticed that the game’s loader is compatible with the Action Replay cartridge MKVI’s Fast Loader, so rather than wait a long time for the game to load, and thankfully it exactly works with the hardware loader.

Once loaded, a small options screen appears. Pressing F5 toggles Game or Editor option. For example, when you press F5, the option will change from Game to Editor and vice-versa. When Editor displays, you don’t have a choice of tunes to play. However, if you select game, pressing F7 gives you a selection of tunes, you can select whichever tune of your own choice. Pressing Space will load either the game, or the level editor.

The Title Screen / Presentation

The Session is presented like some of these retro C64 classics. The background is mud, and the logo is built with bricks and the music starts playing. Pressing spacebar will take you to the game

The Game, Itself

This gaie consist of more than one puzzle. Using a Joystick plugged into port 2, you need to move your ball around the play area and move all the blocks into the holes (This reminds me of a game Triad cracked many years ago. I think it was ‘Color Buster‘ by CP Verlag). One problem though, it is NOT that easy task. For a start off, those grey boxes are strewn around the playing area and not all boxes can be pushed, unless you destroy/press all the switches, collect keys and solve other puzzles (which is over to you). Once the puzzles are solved, you can finish off dropping the blocks through the holes.

When you are playing this game, you will find yourself into some really awkward situations. Therefore, if you cannot put any more blocks through the holes, and there are still some blocks left, you will have no other choice but to commit suicide, by pressing the back arrow key. And a life is lost

Game is over when you lose all your lives.

Other bitz

This game is pretty good fun. Great to play, but the music sometimes does my head in. Especially when you hit a bomb, go through a door, etc. I hate music interruptions with another tune and then the previous tune continues. This is something, which could have been done without. The game’s graphics is like some of the retro classic games, which were released commercially for the C64. The loading time varies. If you own fast load facilities, then it should work no problem. Even without ’True Drive Emulation’ on WinVice this game works perfectly.

Overall conclusion

This is a very nice colourful game, which looks as if it was programmed in BASIC, but the game was assembled (I assume). It consists of loads of levels, a nice level editor and plenty of retro game play fun. If this game was sold in 1983+ it would have become a mega hit, despite some of these drawbacks :o)

Rating: 7/10