Lode Runner Classic

Someone wise once said that it is important to grimace whenever you look back – that way you know you're making progress. Cast your memory back ten, 20 or 30 years (your age permitting, obviously) and, soon enough, mullet haircuts, shell suits, platform shoes, the Edgar Winter Group and Timmy Mallet all spring painfully to mind from their respective decades.

Things that should be left in the past have a tendency to invade the here and now, though, and generally when you least expect it. A bit like bumping into an out-grown friend at a party, who then spends the evening poking you in the shoulder, shouting the slogans and catchphrases of your youth into your ear above the music.

Some of these revisits, however, are more welcome. The good kind give our nostalgia glands a bit of a tweak, sometimes reminding us of a gentler, less complicated time. Take the '80s animated series ThunderCats (said to be set to make a Transformers-like film apparition in the next couple of years), for example, which thoroughly ridicules the pseudo Dadaist musings of Spongebob.

One other such old friend we're glad to welcome back with open arms is Lode Runner, the type of game that proves progress is over-rated.

For those of you not yet alive when it came out or too busy playing with Spacehoppers and Rubik's Cubes to care, Lode Runner is essentially a puzzle game played out in a platform style. You control a small character that must collect all the gold in each level while also avoiding evil robots.

The levels consist of multi-story brick platforms, with ladders and hand-to-hand bars suspended in the air that you can use to move around the level. In addition, you can dig holes to temporarily trap robots, which you can then safely walk on top of.

If a hole is filled before a robot escapes, it is consumed and immediately respawns at a random place at the top of the level. Levels are completed by collecting all the gold and then travelling to the top of the screen.

It sounds simple enough but then Lode Runner Classic is testament to the notion that a good idea never gets old. As soon as you get used to the tricky task of concentrating on several things at once (avoiding the robots, making sure you don't trap yourself and making your way towards the gold), the challenge to solve each of the 60 stages in the fastest time possible becomes the game's main driver.

The random respawns for relinquished robots requires good old-fashioned arcade reflex skills, demanding swift judgement and an ability to react just as quickly with your thumbs. When it all comes together on some of the more challenging levels, the exhilaration of making the right split-second decision is reminiscent of Pac-Man's uncomplicated thrills, and set against the solid and varied puzzle core, Lode Runner Classic thus boasts depth that belies its uncomplicated mechanics.

Add to that an easy-to-use level editor with the option to save your creations and Lode Runner Classic is definitely a game that justifies its price before you are finished with it.

Visually, the title has been given an overhaul and the Lode Runner himself now resembles a distant cousin to Mega Man, rather than the stick figure of the original. The backgrounds, too, have taken on a far more colourful appearance, and the game in general has a cheerfulness that the black backgrounds of the first version lacked. (Purists looking to relive their childhood memories are catered for though, as there is an option to switch the game over to the original stylings, complete with the music and sound effects.)

It isn't all pots of gold, mind. The controls, although adequate for the most part, have a tendency to stick randomly, meaning the occasional frustrating and undeserved death does occur. Happily though, in what is an all-too-uncommon but smart design decision, the developer, Hudson Soft, has opted to enable you to choose which level to begin on from the start of the game, meaning that the odd unfair death never irritates too much, given that your progress isn't lost.

Lode Runner Classic is a competent package that makes the transition to mobile well. It's definitely worth a look for fans of the original and newcomers alike.