Goldrush

Goldrush – Get a bad case of gold fever!

It’s been revered for millennia and often been the cause of and answer to all the world’s problems, but it’s easy to see why gold has often caught the attention of pirates and emperors alike.

Set in California when the goldrush was in full swing, you play the part of a miner who must navigate his way round the various mines deep underground armed with little more than a pickaxe, some dynamite and your wits. You must try to unearth and recover all of the mine’s gold, gems and other precious mysteries but not getting too carried away with this gold fever and forgetting that at any moment the tunnel could collapse!

Fortunately if you do get buried alive you will be re-spawned at the surface, but you’ll be relieved of a substantial amount of gold – which can be the difference between success and failure in the task set. Speaking of tasks, you’re given an objective to recover a certain amount of gold. You can leave the mine at earlier points but you’ll only be rewarded with one or two stars rather than the coveted three stars.

Moving your way around the tunnels is a simple task of using the d-pad or keypad and pointing in the direction you wish to go. If the path is clear you’ll walk or climb along, if the path’s not then you’ll dig your way through. You’ll encounter different types of earth to tunnel through, from soil to solid rock. The harder the material, the more stamina will be drained by digging through it and when you run out of stamina your game’s over.

However as with good puzzle and guessing games, you have the opportunity purchase equipment to help you get through the level. Too much and you’ll spend more gold than you’ll recover, spend not enough and you may make the level much harder than needed to be.

As you tunnel your way around the level you will not only encounter treasures and falling rocks but also hazards like bats and even ghosts! These nasty critters will hurt you (drain your stamina) if they hit you, but when they rest you can clobber them with your pickaxe.

In the end, this is quite a fun challenge and one that will easily help pass a few minutes or even a few hours. This game’s a little repetitive but as each level’s quite different and challenging, you will easily be kept entertained and keep your attention.

Rating 80%

Positives

Challenging and each level is quite different

Lots and lots of levels to explore

Easy to get stuck into and enjoy

Negatives

Quite repetitive

The controls can easily work against you if you accidentally remove the wrong block of earth

Could have benefited from some computer opponent to up the ante