Pyro II

The Good
It's wonderful. This game is addictive, fun, and easy to play. The premise is easy to learn, but hard to master. It's such a fun little game. There isnt really anything not to like.

The Bad
It's completely addictive, and I don't think there was a sequal. By todays standards the graphics and sound are truly to give it the best word possible "quaint." They are certainly good enough though. The game is so addictive I always play it for at least an hour. It's hard to quit, but shouldn't all good games be this way?

I really can't think of anything I didn't like. Graphics and sound are dated, but so is everything from 1990. Gameplay is simple, but thats what makes it so fun.

The Bottom Line
The first thing you have to do to enjoy this game is realize you are not going to be impressed by eye candy, and flashy sounds. The graphics and sound are extremely dated.

The game also isn't complicated. Gameplay consists of running (slowly) through a series of maze like floors, picking up, putting down and spilling cans of gasoline. You leave behind you a string with a fire at the end of it. The secret is the more fire burning on the screen the slower the fire on the string moves. So you have to try to burn down the floor (preferably the entire floor) and run down the stairs without touching fire yourself.

There are two campaigns, World Terrorist, and Secret Agent. You have to complete World Terrorist to get a code to unlock Secret Agent. In World Terrorist you get to burn down famous buildings in dozens of contries. In secret agent you work for the CIA burning down building in communist contries.

The game as a lot of little nice touches to keep it interesting. The occastional gaurd, fire walls, exploding cans of gasoline, olympic scoring (type -o when you start the program), and even a visit from President Bush (while you are burning the White House down).

I guess the idea of pyromania isnt really appropriate for all, and perhaps if it was done more graphically I might even feel more uncomfortable with it. But Burning down public landmarks isn't really the main point of the game. It's basically a puzzle game, that's just plain fun.