Star Wars
(Domark, 1988)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

As Luke Skywalker, you must take on the military might of the Imperial Death Star in your X-Wing. Viewed from a first person perspective, you first engage Darth Vader and his fleet of TIE fighters, shooting them and their fireballs to protect your limited shields. Then on to the military station's surface dodging and destroying its defensive turrets, and finally into the trench, avoiding the various protrusions and obligatory fireballs until you are finally able to attempt to launch your torpedoes down the exhaust shaft to blow the Empire's pride and joy to kingdom come. Failure results in a restart – thankfully, the difficulty is configurable. A brilliant, albeit simple looking game that's a must for every Star Wars fan.

See also: The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Droids.

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9

C-3PO and his companion R2-D2 have been imprisoned and must escape from their captors. The base consists of eight levels, and C-3PO and R2-D2 must work their way up the levels by unlocking the barriers and lifts. You'll find computer terminals next to them, and if R2-D2 logs on to them, you play a Simon-like memory game where you must memorise two sequences and repeat them correctly if you want to gain access. Of course, there are also a lot of robots and other hazards to impede your progress and reduce your energy. The graphics are very well done with lots of detail, and the tune on the menu is really groovy! However, the gameplay is very monotonous, and the method of selecting icons to perform actions is both awkward and frustrating.

See also: The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars.

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4

After your heroic mission in Planetfall, you are now a Lieutenant First Class on the Stellar Patrol Ship Duffy, but your latest assignment is ridiculously mundane – go to a nearby space station to pick up a supply of forms. When you get there (accompanied by your robotic friend, Floyd), the station is completely deserted, most of the machinery is going crazy, and an alien ship has brought something rather nasty with it. Of course, you've got to save the station from being taken over by it. The sense of foreboding and isolation pervades this text adventure, which increases the difficulty level considerably with respect to its predecessor – and this is the main reason why I don't like it as much. It's still very good, though.

See also: Planetfall.

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8

Ho-hum – another cheap, horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up. This one has the added bonus of making your CPC pretend it's a Spectrum, and that is never a good thing. You can collect up to five different power-ups, all of which add some extra weaponry to your spacecraft. Unfortunately, if you aren't able to collect these power-ups, you'll have great difficulty getting far, and that's the main problem with this game. The scrolling is reasonably fast, and I can put up with monochrome graphics, but there are too many enemies and not enough room to dodge them.

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4

It's a tough life looking after your family. Steg is a slug, and his little slugs, the T'yungunz, are hungry and want their favourite food – grubs. On each of the ten levels, Steg must blow bubbles to trap the grubs which are to be found crawling around. The bubbles float upwards, and hopefully they will find their way to the T'yungunz at the top of the level. On the first two or three levels, this isn't a problem, but on later levels, you'll need to intervene by blowing more bubbles or gently blowing on to them to make them move. The concept behind this game is quite original and is fairly similar to Lemmings. However, the game crawls sluggishly (pun intended), and as a result, each level takes ages to complete and things become boring. If this wasn't a Spectrum port, it could have been a lot better. The music is good, though.

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5

A decent snooker game for one or two players. There's no computer opponent, so playing on your own means you clear the table and then your score is taken into consideration. Fouls generate a score of their own which is subtracted from the number of successful pots, so once you finish the game, you may be surprised by your score. You use a cursor to aim your cue and then select power and spin. Once you pot a red, you are asked to select a colour. The visuals are adequate and the sound comprises of a few basic effects. It's just a shame that you can't play against the computer.

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6

Despite using his name, the legendary actor doesn't make an appearance within the game. In fact, it's a re-release of a game that was originally bundled with Loriciel's Westphaser lightgun. Six criminals are roaming the Wild West, and there's a reward for shooting them. Three of the shoot-outs take place in a saloon, while the other three take place in a town square. The shoot-outs can be rather chaotic and you'll need to have a good aim as well as quick reflexes. What's bizarre, though, is that in the saloons, the innocent people who you mustn't shoot (which includes a very young child) carry on their normal business while there's a gunfight going on! However, it's great fun, and the game captures the Wild West atmosphere marvellously, with graphics and sound effects which have to be seen and heard to be believed.

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8

Play the risky world of the stock market as you (and up to five other players if you want) buy and sell shares in four mining companies who mine lead, zinc, tin and gold respectively. Shares will go up and down and other events will occur as you attempt to make a million pounds; companies are taken over or go bankrupt, bonus payments are made to shareholders, and bonus shares can be handed out. However, the taxman will soon be after you, and when you buy a lot of shares, they will grab money from your bank account! There are four difficulty levels to try out, and having only four companies means that things are kept simple. It's a nice enough simulation for wannabe stockbrokers, but the real thing isn't for me!

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7

Run around a grid, dodging monsters, collecting flags and stomping dynamite before it blows up. If you stomp enough dynamite, you can go to the next stage. However, there are two problems. The first and most important is that once you step on a square, it disappears, and you can't step on it again, so you must be careful where you walk, or you may end up trapped! The second is a pair of shoes that moves around the screen very fast and which will squash you if you cross its path. The game has a very simple concept but is unfortunately very frustrating, mostly thanks to the aforementioned shoes. Most players will give up and play something else after a few goes.

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3

One of those games which has a very simple concept which proves to be enjoyable – in the short term, at least. It's a bat and ball game with two different styles of gameplay which alternate on each screen. Firstly, you must manoeuvre your bat so that a ball remains in the air at all times. If it lands on the ground, a counter will decrease, and when it reaches zero, the game ends. On the following screen, you must touch several tiles while avoiding all the balls; touch any of the balls and the game ends instantly. Subsequent screens add more blocks and eventually, more balls, to make things harder. It gets repetitive after a while – and why does the game have to have such awful Spectrum-like graphics?

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4