Toobin is one of those games I only recently stumbled on when buying a pile of games from somebody. Once it loaded I gave it a quick try, and another quick go and now I keep going back to try again. I thought it was about time to tell others about it too.

So it’s a hot sunny day, the kind of day we get here in the UK two or three days a year, and it’s an ideal day for messing about in the water. Take your rubber inner tube down to the river and cool down with a relaxing lie on your toob. The only thing is, being a computer game,  it’s not going to be so easy, and pretty soon you’ll  be paddling for your life to escape the killer alligator. Yes a killer reptile is chasing you, so get paddling.

Toobin has a strange control system which actually makes sense when you consider what you are doing, two buttons control left and right arms forward, and two backwards, paddle only one arm and you go in circles. Once you master the padlling, and control your toob, your objective is to get as far as you can along the river, avoiding anything which may puncture your ring (please no “stabbed in the ring” innuendos here).

Along the way you can pick up items to throw, which can be thrown at obstacles to clear the path ahead. They can also be used to clear the banks of whatever is hiding in the bushes throwing things at your delicate floating ring. You get points for distance, and extra points for making it through gates along the way, which gives you something to aim for as well as just the distance. It also means there is a balance between speed to elude the Alligator, and controlling your rubbery craft to avoid everything that needs avoiding and collect or go through anything good.

Graphics on Toobin are slightly above average for the Spectrum, you can make out what everything is supposed to be even without the benefit of my 80s imagination. Sound is minimal, with just your splashy paddles coming frombthe Speccy speaker. Toobin does however have a lot of that “one more go” element that doesn’t require photo realistic visuals or sampled sounds to keep you coming back.

Toobin on the ZX Spectrum is a fun, addictive game definitely worth a try 8/10

Here’s a short video of Toobin played badly by me on ZX Spectrum: https://youtu.be/7QpHAq1EcqM

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