Producer: Ocean
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Paul Owens

After an intensive eighteen month research program, Jesse Mach's super bike is finally ready to take to the mean streets...

Jesse is hell-bent on avenging the death of his best friend, and goes on a one man crusade to deal death to villains wherever they may be. And they're on the street - it's positively swarming with baddies, all driving XR3's for some reason. Did they buy XR3's because they were baddies in the first place, or did the go-faster stripes, natty grey trim and hideous insurance grouping warp their minds? Well, Jesse doesn't go in for all this psychological analysis stuff, a laser blast in the XR3 fuel tank is his answer.

Zooming along, Jesse has to weave his way through the traffic, dodging the bullets fired by the bad guys and doing his best to eliminate carloads of criminals while taking care not to kill innocent citizens. This is no ordinary bike - apart from the laser cannon, it can leap into the air, and a well timed sproing can often avoid a collision. A crash or blast from a villain's gun isn't immediately fatal - the bike can take a fair bit of damage before packing up on Jesse - but reckless driving leads to the end of the game. If too many civilians are wiped out, the police give chase and the turbo facility comes in handy for making a quick getaway: a prod on the turbo key give a burst of speed.

While driving along, a weather eye has to be kept on the status area where gauges indicate the condition of the lasers, the damage received and the temperature of the bike's engine, which rises with each super leap into the air. Fuel also has a habit of being used... On the positive side, points are awarded for each baddie car blown up and for each civilian overtaken.

After a bit of cruising the mean streets, Jesse arrives on the scene of a crime - another bunch of life's social misfits is robbing a liquor store. Does he get off the old bike and chew over a few of the finer points of behavioural therapy with the criminals, persuading them to abandon this life of crime? Does he heck! Out with the old rifle with laser sights, and it's time for a spot of Missile Command style baddie killing as they run to their getaway van.

All the villains at the robbery scene must be shot before the second mission can begin. Then it's back to the road chase sequence, only this time a high bonus is awarded for killing off an underworld Big Cheese who motors along in a black sedan. Once the Sedan has been disposed of, Jesse and his bike return to base for a refit so the major confrontation with the Master Criminal can begin with the bike in tip-top condition. In the final street sequence the Top Man has to be blown out of his Porsche whereupon ultimate vengeance becomes Jesse's.

COMMENTS

Control keys: redefinable: accelerate, decelerate, left, right, turbo, jump and fire
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: adequate
Use of colour: monochromatic roadway avoids clashes
Graphics: neat shadowing effect, otherwise unremarkable
Sound: minimal spot effects, no tune
Skill levels: one
Screens: scrolling roadway

Well, was it worth the wait? Not really. This might have been a good game eighteen months ago, but it is just another vertically scrolling race game with a few knobs on. The graphics are pretty, and there are some neat effects like jumping and the shadows on everything. There's nothing very original or demanding about this game and somehow it doesn't seem to have been finished off - for instance, when the bike finally packs up as a result of too much 'collision damage' the game grinds to a haft after you lose control. No doubt the licensing deal will ensure it sells well….

A year and a halt wait for this trite game... come on OCEAN are you more concerned with your licensing deals than with the quality of your games? I was expecting great things from this game until I saw how bad Knight Rider was, well thankfully this is a little more playable than KR but it still isn't state of the art. The graphics are very strange indeed - judging from the shape of your bike it was made in the nineteen twenties. The rest of the traffic is fairly well done but some of it is a little suspect. The streets scroll well and are excellently detailed. Soundwise Street Hawk doesn't really offer anything new: there are a few mediocre spot effects but no tunes. Street Hawk isn't bad game, but it is very easy to complete and not very compelling.

After having seen the version issued for those not-so-lucky people who really desperately needed a copy of Streethawk (copies were sold through a mail order catalogue, yonks ago) I expected something a little different from the game that I loaded into my Spectrum. Though totally unlike its predecessor in everything except the central character, I found the final version of Streethawk a lot better than its early incarnation. Despite not being in the top grade category, I enjoyed playing it, and despite the bad feeling that was obviously created by the long delay between advertising and game release. I think this game should go down well amongst the games buying public. Not bad.

Ocean
£7.95

Help! A robbery! But never fear, here's... (ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-taaa!!!)... Here's... (ra-ta-ta-taa?) Here... oh, never mind!

If you'd been looking down a shotgun, waiting for Street Hawk to save you, you might well have decided to hand over the money after all. It was obviously such a nice day that Street Pigeon decided to walk. Of course Street Budgie put in an abortive appearance last year, but this was so dire it flew out almost immediately it had flown in.

Twelve months later and cue Street Cuckoo - version two - swooping in with all the grace of an ostrich wearing wellies. If I was Ocean I'd have let this one fly south for the winter. It's a real Street Dodo.

So what's it all about? Screen one and you're astride that throbbing monstrosity, Street Sparrow, racing to a heist. Seen from above, it's a case of dodge the innocent Sunday drivers and shoot up the criminals' cars, which calls for little skill and offers less excitement. It plays so slowly you'll soon understand why Street Penguin took so long to arrive.

After dicing with death in that section - and I do mean death... have you ever fallen asleep while driving a motorbike? - you have to shoot the baddies as they run from the scene of the crime. Criminal is certainly a term that comes to mind. Shooting fish in a barrel is another.

After that... well, just re-read the last paragraph but one. In its favour, Street Peacock looks pretty good, but it's as threatening as a three day old chick. And it isn't even particularly well programmed. Even when you've received maximum damage and can't do anything it continues to urge you on.

Really, if I want some two wheel action, I'd prefer Paperboy's BMX. Never has a game been more aptly titled than Street Turkey.

Dougie: Street Hawk's another one of those TV tie-ups of which we all expect great things. I'm sure you're as disappointed as me to learn that once again, the computer game bears no relation to the TV show. I just wish for a change that someone would actually do a good TV or movie game. Anyway, back to the game, if like me you're a fan of the original Defender, this game's for you.

First, you have to charge up your Street Hawk by gaining points through the accuracy of your laser firing. Once you've got the juice then you're off, your mission ?... to blast the enemy helicopters to bits and rescue the survivors - simple innit!!, You've also got to pick up the pieces of some of the enemy helicopters to get you on to the next level. Keep a keen eye on the twin scanners to make sure you know where the next attack is coming from.

All in all, if you're a Defender fan, then this game's got some of the fastest, flicker-free, hi-res sprites that I've ever seen on the Speccy. And it's full of hi-speed Defender style action, though I'm not sure that my software collection really needs another Defender style program. 6/10

Rick: The ultimate for Arcade Hell's Angels. Fast, furious and full throttle for battling bikers chasing choppers with choppers. Not one for the meek and mild. 7/10

Ross: Defender with motorbikes - didn't Activision do something similar on the Atari two years ago? Points for pretty graphics, but nothing for originality. 7/10

Run it again and again and again - there's nothing like a good race game. You can always beat that world record just once more, as DOMINIC HANDY and MIKE DUNN discover when they go into...

Street Hawk
Ocean

68% Issue 34

MIKE: Cruise along the streets in your mean machine, killing baddies... Ocean's Street Hawk lasted me a few minutes on replay. The graphics are dull, apart from the shoot-out screen, and the game's appeal soon fades.
40%

DOMINIC: There were a few versions of this flying about before we got the final one (mostly for impatient mail-order houses) - but the mass-produced one is much the best. Shading is great and the perspective works well. Worth a look for old times' sake.
56%

Coming, erm, now actually, to a cinema near you...

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO FILM AND TELLY GAMES

Knowing full well what a square-eyed bunch you are, we thought it was about time you were given the facts on film and television licenced games. Once again, JONATHAN DAVIES was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

(Cough. Deep, manly voice.)

'In the beginning there were loads and loads of Speccy games. Loads of them. They sold all right, but not exactly in enormous numbers. The trouble was, you see, that none of them seemed particularly exciting. They had nothing that caught the public eye. They were just computer games. Had no 'cred'.

Then a small cog within a long-since-extinct software house had an idea.

"Why don't we give our next game the same name as an incredibly popular film? Then everyone would buy it just because they'd seen the film and they'd foolishly think the game would be just as good. How about i, eh?"

"Er, we could do, I suppose."

"Great."

"But what if the film company finds out? They might sue us or something."

"Oh yeah."

"Tcha."

"I know - we could ask them first."

"That's a point. Go on then."

"What? Me?"

"Yeah. Give them a ring and ask if they'd mind."

"Oo-er. Cripes. Okay then." (Dials very long trans-Atlantic phone number.)

"Hullo. We'd like to name our new game after your film and we were wondering if it was okay by you. Right... yes... oh, I see." (Cups hand over receiver.) "They want us to give them lots of money."

"Erm, well in that case we'd better." (Removes hand.) "Yes, that'll be fine. We'll send you some right away. Bye."

"Super."

"But. er..."

"What?"

"How are we going to come up with a game that's anything like the film?"

"I don't know really."

"How about if we have a bloke walking around shooting people?"

"That sounds fine. I'll program it right away."

And so the film and telly licence was born. It... cough. Choke.

Oops. There goes the deep, manly voice.

Anyway, film and telly games, eh? Everyone's doing them these days, as they're one of the few remaining ways of making serious money with computer games. Run a grubby finger down the charts and you'll find nearly all the top-sellers are film and telly licences. (Or arcade conversions, of course.)

But why do we keep buying them? After all, just because a game's named after a really brill film doesn't mean it's going to be any good, does it? Surely we aren't buying them simply because of the flashy name on the box?

Erm, well in the old days, software houses assumed this to be the case, and chucked out a stream of absolutely appalling games with 'big name' titles. Things like Miami Vice, The Dukes Of Hazard and Highlander were all pretty dreadful, but it was hoped that they'd sell on the strength of their names. But we weren't fooled. Oh no. The games didn't sell well, and the companies were forced to think again.

Eventually they came up with... the 'bloke walking around shooting things' idea. And they've used it more or less ever since. Lucky then that they tend to be jolly good all the same, and sometimes come up with the odd original idea to spice things up (like The Untouchables did, or perhaps Back To The Future Part II).

RATINGS

As always seems to be the case, the trusty YS ratings system doesn't really seem adequate when it comes to film and telly games. So here's what we've put together instead...

LIGHTS
What does it look like? Nice? Or not very nice at all? (You mean are the graphics any good? Ed) Er, yes. That's it in a nutshell. (Then why didn't you just say the first place? Ed) Erm...

CAMERA
How does the general atmosphere compare to the film or telly programme the game's meant to go with? Have programmers just taken a bog-standard game and stuck a flashy name on it? Or have they made an effort to incorporate a bit of the 'feel' of the original?

ACTION
Does the plot follow along the same sort of lines as the film or telly programme? Is there plenty action-packedness? And is the game the same all way through, or does it follow the original's twists and turns?

CUT
Um, how does the game compare to all the licences around at the moment? Is it better? Or worse? In other words, is it a 'cut' above the rest? (is that really the best you can manage? Ed)

STREET HAWK
Ocean

The telly version of this was one of those one-series wonders that was once very popular but fizzled out after no time at all. Which was a bit unfortunate for Ocean really, who took absolutely ages to get this game out, after completely rewriting it at one stage, so that it arrived at rather an awkward time. It's one of these playing-it-safe film games - really just a scrolling shoot-'em-up that could have been called just about anything. It's more like Spy Hunter than anything else, with vertical scrolling, you on a bike instead of a car and plenty of other traffic to shoot/avoid.

And that's about it really, apart from a jump key which lets you, erm, jump over other traffic, a Turbo key for a bit of extra speed and every so often a baddy who appears on the road and shoots at you. It's not outstanding in any way, but the graphics are slicker than usual and it's got quite a good 'Street Hawk' feel to it. All that's missing is variety, so it gets boring after a while. Oh, and our resident biker and Art Asst says that "his off-side crankshaft sprocket's not quite to scale". We told him to shut up.

Label: Ocean
Price: £7.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Street Hawk has finally arrived from the people at Ocean. After what seems like years and years of waiting with baited breath, the SU team finally got to play the game. Unfortunately, it's not up to much.

In the game, and the Saturday-afternoon-round-about-lunchtime TV show on ITV, the hero is one Jesse Mach, who's made the man responsible for testing Street Hawk, a bike with all the abilities of K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, but with half the number of wheels.

You begin in the centre of a light blue road, standing at a complete halt, with cars, bikes and trucks over-taking you. Yup, you've gotta move your butt if you don't wanna be splattered all over the street.

The snag is the graphics scroll down the screen smoothly but at anything but 'turbo'speed. It's difficult to distinguish between the snails' pace (but legal) 55mph and the ridiculous max of 285mph. The bike isn't very responsive, either.

Fortunately, you're saved from many collisions by the jump facility. Pressing Space will cause your bike to leap into the air, allowing you to clear vehicles in a single bound.

After riding for a little while, or shooting a certain amount of bad guys, you find yourself at the scene of a robbery. Funnily enough every time a robbery takes place in the game, it's Joe's Joint that gets hit. Poor old Joe must be getting pretty sick of sluicing his doorstep down because, as the masked raiders leave the shop, you must gun them down.

You control a crosshair sight. Line it up on the fleeing villain before delivering a stiff dose of justice.

The real problem with the game is that it is simply too simple. It could be defined as a Spy Hunter/3D Shootout. Were it a budget title. Street Hawk would be nice, but it's not.

MACHINES: Spectrum/Amstrad
SUPPLIER: Ocean
PRICE: £7.95 (Spec), £8.95 (Ams)
VERSIONS TESTED: Spec/Ams

Well, was it worth waiting for? 'Fraid not. You've seen this game before in several different guises - Spy Hunter, Stainless Steel etc, etc..

Both versions look pretty - but they are so SLOW. The Spectrum being the worst culprit.

Basically the game comes in two bits. There's the Spyhunter bit in which you guide Jesse Mach and his supersonic bike through rush hour traffic in search of villains.

He must zap the cars with the baddies in - but must avoid killing off innocent bystanders in their VW beetles. If you accidentally on purpose wipe out too many law abiding citizens the cops will be after you. Then there's the Gunfight section - like old Wild West arcade games.

Now if you reckon that this combination is state of the art for 1986 then where have you been for the last five years?

Controlling the superbike is fairly easy but it does have an annoying habit of doing wheelies when you don't want it to. I thought you had to have a machine that accelerated pretty fast to be able to do this anyway. And fast this isn't.

You can also "damage" the machine by bumping into kerbs, cars and lorries. Inflict too many dents and it simply stops - where ever you are it just stops dead and you have to wait while a little message scrolls across before you can get things going again. If you really want to get things going again...

You can identify the baddies on the Spectrum version as they drive a hatchback and fire at you. On the Amstrad the baddies' cars can be any colour, except red or green.

Messages appear at the bottom of the screen telling you what to do if the police are chasing you.

After a couple of minutes zapping through the traffic a message will flash up telling you that a robbery is taking place up ahead. Your bike slows down and the screen display changes to the shoot out screen in which you simply have to zap the robbers as they emerge from the building they've been robbing.

You simply move a cross-hair sight around the screen and hit the fire button. On the Amstrad version the robbers shoot back.

This bit on the Spectrum is amazingly easy, and very boring. Then it's back on the road again for another round of the same sort of stuff.

I doubt if even the most fanatical Street Hawk fan will find much to recommend this game. After such a long wait the end result is predictable and awesomely average.

Street Hawk would make a good budget release - but as a full price offering it just doesn't make it.