DLOAD "HYDRA REVIEW"

**Info Card**

Classification:	Game / Puzzle	vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Publisher:	J&F Publishing / Loadstar 128
Programmer:	Knees Calhoon
Music/Sound:	n/a
Year:	1997
Rating:	★★☆☆
Disk:	Hydra.d64

Hydra is a puzzle game for your Commodore 128, where you have to recreate the multi-limb “hydra” by rotating the puzzle blocks back to their proper positions. The game utilizes the 128's 80 column mode, and you have the option of playing the game using the keyboard, joystick or mouse.

The game offers six different sizes of Hydra's and five puzzles to solve for each size. There's also five blank puzzles for you to design your own puzzles, with the built-in editor.

The game-play is simple, but very challenging; especially if you're playing against the clock. You use the mouse, joystick, or keyboard to move the pointer to the tiles you want to re-position. With the mouse, you use the left and right mouse buttons to rotate the tile either clockwise or counter-clockwise. If you use the keyboard or joystick, you rotate the tiles clockwise with either the space bar or fire-button.

To finish the puzzle, the Hydra can have no breaks in the chain, and you never can tell how many limbs the Hydra has to it. So, you have to be quick with your problem solving if you want to get the fastest completion time.

I find the game challenging enough, but once you've played it a few times, the challenge kind of loses some of it's appeal, as now it's just to see how fast you can complete the puzzle. However, if you have a friend who you can convince to make some new puzzles for you with the editor, then all the better. But, because of it's limited replay-ability, If only the puzzles were randomly generated.

Overall, if you want to challenge your brain a little bit on a fun puzzle game, then give Hydra a try. Just don't do all the puzzles in one sitting, or you probably won't be coming back to it any time soon.

Hydra was distributed in Issue #35 of the Loadstar 128 disk-mag.