[{"TitleName":"Kemshu","Publisher":"Cult Games","Author":"Nick Fleming","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0002680","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 55, Aug 1988","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1988-07-28","Editor":"Dominic Handy","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Dominic Handy\r\nAssistant Editor: Katharina Hamza\r\nProduction Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Philip King, Lloyd Mangram, Nick Roberts\r\nEditorial Assistants: Frances Mable, Glenys Powell\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Jon Bates, Raffaele Cecco, Paul Evans, Simon N Goodwin, Ian Philipson, Philippa Irving, Brendon Kavanagh, Paul Sumner, Stuart Wynne\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nAssistant Art Director: Wayne Allen\r\nProduction Team: Ian Chubb, Melvin Fisher, Robert Millichamp, Yvonne Priest, Matthew Uffindell\r\n\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nSales Executives: Andrew Smales, Sarah Chapman\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypeset by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group. Distribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop Frances Mable a line at the [redacted] address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions. No material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\nTotal: 96,590\r\nUK/EIRE: 90,822\r\n\r\n©CRASH Ltd, 1988\r\n\r\nCover Design & Illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Cult\r\nRetail Price: £2.99\r\nAuthor: Nick Fleming\r\n\r\nKemshu is set on a square board that is split into 100 multi-coloured squares. The objective is to change all the colours on the board to a single target colour, indicated at the right of the screen.\r\n\r\nUsing a cursor, squares can be moved across the board in rows. Four blocks of the target colour need to be placed around a differently coloured block to transform it.\r\n\r\nChanging the colour of all the squares within the given time limit gains access to the next level. A status box to the right of the screen shows the present score, the percentage of screen area covered, time limit and the target colour.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: bright and functional\r\nSound: none\r\nOptions: definable keyboard","ReviewerComments":["Puzzle games seem to be few and far between - it's nice to see that software houses haven't abandoned the genre completely. The idea behind Kemshu is very simple but play gets quite difficult on the higher levels. If time is running out, the action can become quite frantic. The game involves quick thinking rather than complex strategy. As you try desperately to complete each level, success often depends more on lucky reactions. As every round involves exactly the same type of basic strategy (only the decreasing time limits add variety), gameplay does get repetitive after a while. Kemshu lacks the variety of a game such as Brainstorm but it is very playable in the short term.\r\nPhil King\r\n77%","Brainstorm (90%, Issue 52) almost drove me up the wall with its simple but addictive gameplay. Kemshu has similarly tied my brain into knots. The graphics are simple but effective (you can't go far wrong with a screen full of coloured blocks) but sound is sadly missing - a cheerful tune would have gone down well. Control is easy to master, so you don't spend hours rifling through bedsheet-sized instruction manuals. The saved time can be put to good use puzzling over the best way to solve the game. Overall Kemshu, although not quite in the Brainstorm league, is a simple strategy game definitely worth the £1.99 price tag.\r\nMark Caswell\r\n81%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Initially addictive, it's not likely to keep a storm raging in your brain for long.","Page":"105","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Phil King","Score":"77","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"81","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"This may be a very attractive patchwork quilt, but it's not going to win any points."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"63%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"53%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"77%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"73%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"79%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 33, Sep 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-08-11","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nDeputy Editor: Ciaran Brennan\r\nArt Editor: Darrell King\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nProduction Editor: Jackie Ryan\r\nDesigner: Catherine Higgs\r\nContributors: Guy Bennington, Marcus Berkmann, Owen & Audrey Bishop, Richard Blaine, Jonathan Davies, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Mike Gerrard, Graeme Kidd, David McCandless, Duncan McDonald, Nat Pryce, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, Ben Stone\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Stansfield\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nArt Director: Hazel Bennington\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\nPublishing Director: Roger Munford\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1988 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"KEMSHU\r\nCult Games\r\n£1.99\r\nReviewer: Nat Pryce\r\n\r\nKemshu gave me a few problems at first: how could I start the review when there was no plot or even decent instructions to quote/make fun of!? Well, I've decided not to do any quoting but just to... explain the game! (Cripes, I sound like an early-evening gameshow host).\r\n\r\nYou start off with a screen full of differently coloured tiles which you must surround with squares of a target colour. This is achieved by 'sliding' the columns and rows of tiles until an incorrectly coloured square is surrounded by squares of the target colour. This then turns into a correctly coloured square with a sort of 'crunch' noise. Turn the whole screen into the target colour within a time limit and you win: run out of time and you lose. A simple idea, but then simple ideas are usually the most successful: look at Split Personalities and Think.\r\n\r\nKemshu would be a very addictive game but unfortunately it's too easy; I managed to beat it (yes. again!) on about my tenth game and on a black and white TV too!\r\n\r\nIf you have a very small number of brain cells this could be the game for you but people with as many as me (four) may find it a bit of a walkover.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"51","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nat Pryce","Score":"6","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"6/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 100, Jun 1990","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1990-05-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Jim Douglas\r\nDeputy Editor: Garth Sumpter\r\nProduction Editor: Alison Skeat\r\nDesigner: Osmond Browne\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSenior Sales: Martha Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Ewing\r\nPublisher: Graham Taylor\r\n\r\n©1990 EMAP Images, [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by J'n'G Type\r\nColour work by Pro Print.\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher Web Ltd, Peterborough.\r\nDistributed by BBC Frontline."},"MainText":"Label: Cult\r\nPrice: £2.99\r\nReviewer: Chris Jenkins\r\n\r\nNormally when people claim that a game is very simple but maddeningly addictive, my response is that they must have been mad in the first place. But in the case of Kemshu, it's true! Nothing could be more simple, but nothing is more likely to reduce you to a driveling nervous wreck in record time.\r\n\r\nIt like this. You remember the Rubik Cube, the plastic square from Hell? Kemshu works on a similar principle, but it's in two dimensions. The screen shows a grid of 100 coloured squares, and at the right hand side is a timer, a score indicator and a percentage remaining display. Percentage of what, you wisely ask.\r\n\r\nFor each level you have a target colour (shown at the bottom right). Your task is to surround squares of that colour with squares of any other colour. The target square then changes colour, and you move on to the next target.\r\n\r\nTo move the squares you control a flashing cursor using keyboard or joystick. When you have the cursor positioned, press the fire button and move the joystick, and the entire row or column of squares will jump along. Say your target colour is red; once you have placed a black square at the top, bottom left and right of it, it will change colour to black, and you can go on the chase the next red square.\r\n\r\nThe similarity to Rubik's Cube, of course, is that any change you make affects not only the one row or column, but and number of other rows or columns; the trick is to plan ahead, shuffling the colours you want into position to zap the next target. A useful technique I figured out is to gather as many squares as you can in the middle of the screen, then move the target colours into the centre: this seems to be quicker than trying to surround the target squares wherever they lie.\r\n\r\nYou don't have to surround the squares' diagonal edges, but you can't surround a square which is at the edge of the screen (not even by placing a colour square on the opposite side) - you have to move it away from the edge.\r\n\r\nThere's only one problem with Kemshu - it wouldn't let me win. Every time I got the counter down to 3% remaining, it would announce that I had run out of time, wish me a nice day and go back to the start. Maybe it's just my copy which is wonky - the screenshots on the sleeve show later levels - but it would be a bit of a bottomer if you sploshed down your hard-earned wonga for a game you couldn't even beat.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Fascinating mind-game with a twist. Not that great to look at, but great fun.","Page":"76","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Jenkins","Score":"60","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Not much success so far. Keep those tiles a-slidin' and cover as much space with red tiles."},{"Text":"Watch out for the giant buffalo! Hit him with your laser cannon! (Are you sure about this caption? - Ed)."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"NA","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"79%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"78%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"60%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]