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Retrobate Name:
ipmarks
Game Title:
Molar Maul
Released: 1983
Developer/Author Name: John Gibson
Publisher: Imagine
Format Reviewed: ZX Spectrum
Genre: Platformer
Game Profile:
The theme for this game has you as a toothbrush rushing around a giant mouth, desperately brushing the teeth, before the bacteria jump on them and make them decay and fall out. Obviously in 1983 Imagine weren’t just spending their money on Ferraris but on something to help them relax as well.
Not only is the concept bizarre. It’s also depressing. The idea of making toothache into a fun game idea doesn’t quite sit well. It might have worked as an educational game, but as a leisure activity it always feels slightly worrying to play.
The game starts with a minute long title screen, where the computer makes a noise like breaking wind constantly, whilst some strange messed up pixels, form the name Molar Maul. After you’ve waited five minutes for the game to load, the last thing you want is to have to wait around. So it’s off to a bad start for Molar Maul.
As you press a key to start, and choose keyboard, a huge mouth opens. I say huge, but it doesn’t actually fill the screen, and doubles the size of the Spectrum borders. Once the unrealistic gob opens however you are off….
Anyway you are a Green Toothbrush (disappointingly not a pink toothbrush or a blue toothbrush, so no Max Bygraves songs). The bacteria are pink, and they look like the graphics that flash on the screen when the Spectrum crashes. They head for the yellow capped teeth and start to gnaw away at them. You have to get some ‘Imagico’ toothpaste on yourself, and then brush the affected teeth.
If you don’t get there in time, it changes colour – light blue, dark blue, red etc. until it decays completely. Lose too many teeth and it’s game over. Get toothpaste, brush teeth, die…. And err that’s it. The game then keeps repeating, getting faster each time, till it just gets impossibly hard, with all the teeth having fallen out before you’ve got to the toothpaste.
In short it’s another rubbish Imagine game… no surprises there then. It does have an original concept, but a stupid one. If you’ve never played it I suggest you play it once to see how poor it is, but not after that… not that there’s much danger of that happening.
