Monster Maze

There is a type of game that never reached the arcades or the home video game markets. It's not the adventure game. It's, of course, the three-dimensional maze game. Monster Maze is a new entry to that class of classic games. Unfortunately, any 3-D maze game is instantly compared with other 3-D maze games, among them Wizardry, Asylum and Deathmaze 5000, to name just an outstanding few. And, even more unfortunately, Monster Maze just doesn't make it when compared to its competition. This is not to say that Monster Maze is not a fine game. It is. It just falls short of its predecessors' appeal.
The object of Monster Maze is to clear a maze of gold bars while avoiding monsters that run around the maze. In case you really get stuck, you can use a teleportation door which will take you to a new maze and if you are ever lost, just press the joystick button and you will see an overhead view of the maze you are in. After clearing a maze, you advance to a new, more difficult level. All together there are eight different skill levels, which means that the higher the level, the faster the nasties move. The part that I really hate is that you can't kill a monster on the levels higher than six, because they travel twice as fast as you do.
It's hard to put my finger on it, but there's something definitely missing from this game. Maybe it's that the mazes are too complicated. Or maybe it's because the omnipresent vitamin pill which bestows the eater with super powers always wears off just as you are about to kill a monster. Or possibly, it's the fact that you have a jump feature, which is absolutely useless. You can't jump over a monster and why would you want to jump over a vitamin pill? It's just that you feel that Monster Maze could have been much better.
Overall, Monster Maze is not a bad game, it just sort of falls short of your expectations. Nevertheless, if you already own games like Wizardry or Asylum, Monster Maze would be a good addition to round out your collection if only because of its excellent graphics.
On the lower levels, when you encounter a monster, don't try to jump over him, just turn around and walk away. On the lower levels, they don't react fast enough to get you.