"Harry Falls Short.. But it's still good!"

Ambrosia's back, and this time with their most unusual game ever. Enter Harry the Handsom Executive.. the most bizzarre game to come out of Ambrosia's creative labs, ever.

I'd like to think if you're interested in this game, that you're a mac user. And I'd like to think that if you're a mac user, you've heard of Ambrosia. They made all sorts of nifty MAC ONLY games, like Swoop, Maelstrom, Apeiron, Avalon, Chiral, Yah-dah yah-dah yah-dah. Now, they're back with this game.. a mutant child of an RPG and an action game... and and office management game. (?)

You play as Harry, the Handsome Executive, destined warrior of the swivel chair. Yes, the swivel chair.. this game gets weird. You're are destined to save the world, or something to that effect. The plot isn't much more than a chance to be funny, although at that it succeeds.

When you start the game, you will immediately be alarmed. The control are screwy. That's probably because of the character you're controlling -- he's a guy in an office swivel chair. Yeah, bizarre huh? Anyways, you get around by kicking on the carpet, which sends you wheeling forward.. just like you did with mom's chair when you were bored at home, right? So moving around is tricky at first. You find yourself navigating your way through an office, where you run into several risks... bored employees playing darts might accidently hit you! Mad mailboys might run you over! But you can always recharge with a hot cup of joe...

This game takes the office environment and turns it into a game! It's spectacularly clever, and it makes sense that only a MAC exclusive company could think of it! ;)

The sounds are standard Ambrosia fare, which is good. Lots of cartoony boings and pings and the realistic sound of feet kicking carpet accompany the game. There isn't much music, but the music that is included isn't anything special, just overheroic flares that help enhance the humor of the game. The story is moved on by scrolling text at crucial points of the game, and you can talk to most of your office members to get short little humorous quips and the like.. no fancy cinematics here. Ambrosia's games are made to fit in a reasonable amount of hard drive space.

Unfortunately, the game does fall a little short of Ambrosia's usual offerings. Ambrosia is used to making one-objective arcade type games, and this is its first venture into something bigger. As such, it falls flat in a few places. For instance, despite the ingenoius level and enemy design, nothing changes the fact that you are navigating office space.. and office space is just boring! Truth be told, you get to move onto to other, more interesting worlds after a while, but the game engine doesn't offer up a lot of variety in the gameplay.

Which is another problem.. where are all the cool powerups and such that we are used to seeing in Ambrosia games? Sure, there are a few things to pick up, but it's nowhere near as nifty as Ambrosia's first ever game, Maelstrom. I mean.. a stapler is a helluva weapon, right? How about tipping over water coolers and stuff?

However, despite a few shortcomings, Ambrosia's Harry still packs a better whallop then most shareware games out there. It's different, original, inventive.. and while it falls short on a couple of counts, it's a noble effort thats worth playing. And if it gets that hook in you, you'll have to pay to play --- this is one of Ambrosia's first games that FORCES you to pay registration. Heh heh.. way to go Ambrosia!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99