Reviews/reviewers that trashed your favourite games

[Vampyre]

What does everyone think of the fairly average reviews JSW 2 got? OK, so it's just JSW with extra rooms but personally I enjoyed it just as much.

I think it got a little underrated - it certainly hadn't dropped by 34% (95% in May 84 to 61% in Aug 85) - and it was quite a bit smoother and quicker to play, which helped the playability. But I suppose looking back we'd all played the original to death and it felt a bit of a rip-off to have more-or-less the same game with a few rooms bolted on.

It was still a good game and I could understand a Value For Money mark being low but it deserved something around the Overall 80% mark IMO. The Sinclair Programs Overall is a fair score. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxsr.php?id=2595

[toot_toot]

What does everyone think of the fairly average reviews JSW 2 got? OK, so it's just JSW with extra rooms but personally I enjoyed it just as much.

I think the problem with JSW2 was that it wasn't really Jet Set Willy 2. People were desperate to play Miner Willy Meets the Taxman, it had been talked about for months at this point and by the time JSW2 came out, it did feel like a bit of a "greatest hits" cash in by the label while the artist was still trying to come up with the next album (while having writer's block!).

When it was released in 1985, it was a strange time as although it had only been about 12 months since Jet Set Willy, it seemed like the Spectrum had really moved on. Maybe it had moved into the era of "graphics over gameplay", but I remember picking up Jet Set Willy II on the 6 Pack Vol 2 compilation and thinking it was a really good game, but one of the problems with the original JSW was that it was just too big and sprawling (especially compared to the original Manic Miner) and adding another 70 rooms didn't really help. But I guess JSW2 is what JSW should have been and in a way it should be held in higher regard.

Anyway, I searched for some of the games that a) I really enjoyed back in the 80s and b) I still play now and I was surprised that one of my favourite games, Footballer of the Year, received some strange reviews when it was first released. 68% in Crash, 7/10 in Your Sinclair but a measly 1 out of 5 from Sinclair User. Yes, 1 out of 5!

This was on the same page that Super Soccer from Imagine, which is an absolute pile of crap, got 4/5!

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 59&page=46

I was thinking "how did I get a hold of Footballer of the Year originally" and I remembered that my football daft friend (who would even buy those niche football management games from Cult) bought both Super Soccer AND Footballer of the Year that month. We were desperate to try out Super Soccer, it sounded like a pseudo sequel to Match Day (it was even from the same label, well, sort of the same label) and it was so disappointing. How did it get 4/5 in Sinclair User (the mag I read at the time) AND 8/10 in Your Sinclair (the mag he read at the time, although we swapped in 87)???

But Footballer of the Year really captured the essence of 8-bit home computer games. It didn't even bother to try and recreate the game of Football. Instead it took on a more surreal approach. You control a football. That football can only attack at goal, with either defenders or as a penalty. It was basically Trailblazer but on a football pitch. In certain scenarios. But then the rest of the game was kind of like a board game. You bought cards that allowed you to play matches. You could gamble. Incidents would happen to you that could help or hinder your progress. In fact, it was turned into a board game... "Gary Lineker's sh*t Your Pants at the World Cup". Sorry, "Gary Lineker's Footballer of the Year"

But it was such good fun. You weren't playing football, you were playing a great little game that could only really happen on a computer (unless you were playing the board game, but it didn't have the Trailblazer football bits). It must have done well enough through word of mouth as it managed to get a sequel.

[Dark]

I don’t remember any review in particular, but I really liked the Code Master games and bought loads of them. But my love didn’t seem to be shared in the magazines, at least at first. When they became really successful with the Dizzy franchise they started to get good reviews.

But in the beginning I was loving the grand prix, bmx and jet bike simulators that they were pumping out, and couldn’t understand why they weren’t getting the same love in the magazines.

As to previous responses, I also love, Rock Star Ate My Hamster & Footballer of the Year. Still play them to this day.

[Vampyre]

I really enjoyed Footballer of the Year too - used to plough hours into it. I thought I was the only person on the planet who enjoyed it!

[clebin]

Not so much JSW2 as JSW 2.0, a bugfixed and expanded and just generally superior iteration of the same idea.

Once upon a time, I’d have agreed with that statement but in hindsight a lot of the changes in JSW2 rip the heart out of the original game.

For one, there’s the decision to make all rooms to use black backgrounds that simply ruins rooms like The Cold Store, The Beach and others. Also, the insertion of lazy, worthless rooms like Macaroni Ted or Megaron that break up the coherence and beauty of the original map.

If the update had been confined to the space rooms and some of the better new areas like the sewers, I’d look back on it more fondly but unfortunately it bastardised too much of what was there already.

[toot_toot]

Taking it a bit off topic,[mention]Rev_Stuart_Campbell[/mention] did anyone ever do a Manic Miner mod of the lost levels you wrote about? I remember a DS version of it, but I was wondering if anyone ever used the Manic Miner editor to create the lost levels from other systems? With the Perils of Willy getting a release recently, it would be nice having a Manic Miner Lost Levels too, giving a complete "Miner Willy All Stars" for the Spectrum (and I'd include Jet Set Willy 2 in that!)

[clebin]

Those are sh*t rooms, but how many of them are there? Two or three?

I've had a look at the JSW2 map and you're right that they're the worst ones, but Macaroni Ted in particular stands out as being the 3rd room you visit each and every game, after the Dumb Waiter which is no great shakes itself. So the effect they have may be disproportionate.

There are some great additions like the rocket and the teleporters, but overall the standard of the newer rooms isn't quite up to the originals IMO. Because of that and the removal of colour, I feel it dilutes the original content even though it adds plenty of new stuff to compensate. I'm just not sure I see it as a "generally superior iteration of the same idea". But don't get me wrong, I still love JSW2 warts and all.

[toot_toot]

Taking it a bit off topic,@Rev_Stuart_Campbell did anyone ever do a Manic Miner mod of the lost levels you wrote about? I remember a DS version of it, but I was wondering if anyone ever used the Manic Miner editor to create the lost levels from other systems? With the Perils of Willy getting a release recently, it would be nice having a Manic Miner Lost Levels too, giving a complete "Miner Willy All Stars" for the Spectrum (and I'd include Jet Set Willy 2 in that!)

Many years before the DS game, someone (I forget his name, sorry, but it was the guy responsible for the excellent Manic Miner Comp.Sys.Sinclair) started on trying to make Lost Levels on the Speccy, but it quickly transpired that it couldn't be done for technical reasons (I seem to remember the MM engine wouldn't support the conveyor-belt stairs from Down The Pit, and also that there was some issue with Eddie's Forest).

I've written in an old blog post that there's a two-level demo somewhere, I'll have to see if I can find it. [EDIT: It was Nigel Fishwick, and I've actually managed to track down our old emails about it, but if there was a demo it doesn't seem like he ever sent it to me.]

I'd have thought a 95%-accurate version could be done with a couple of tweaks around those problems, though, and I'd love to see it, because I think the DS game has a strong claim to Best Manic Miner Ever.

[mention]highrise[/mention] did the excellent Perils of Willy remake for the Spectrum and I'm sure in his video blog he mentioned having to customise the Manic Miner "engine" quite a bit in order to make it. I wonder if he could do the same to make the Lost Levels?

[clebin]

Sinclair User's conclusion on (the timeless classic) Contact Sam Cruise:

"The city plan is large, but by no means massive, and because the whole screen scrolls, the action is slow.
That's not to say that Sam Cruise is a bad game. It takes ingenuity to play and has the hallmarks of an excellent strategy/adventure.
It is not, though a fast arcade bash. There's little action but lots of thought."
4/5.

Yeah... it's no US Gold game is it? Speaking of which, they also gave Break Thru 4/5 in the same issue. But they don't just overrate every shallow arcade bash, oh no - on the same page as Break Thru, Cobra got a measly 3/5.

Words fail me. Why didn't SU just cut out the middle-man and start robbing children's pocket money?

[vanpeebles]

One probably had lots of full page ads

[clebin]

Imaginary Sinclair User review of Skool Daze:

"...That's not to say Skool Daze is a bad game. It is not though, a fast arcade bash. You can punch other kids but the action is a much slower pace than, say, Red Heat." 3/5

[clebin]

"That's not to say Dun Darach is a bad game. It is not though, a fast arcade bash. There are many buildings to enter, but exploring the whole town will take a lot longer than in, for example, Death Wish III". 4/5

Ok, I'll stop now.

[SteveSmith]

"That's not to say Dun Darach is a bad game. It is not though, a fast arcade bash. There are many buildings to enter, but exploring the whole town will take a lot longer than in, for example, Death Wish III". 4/5

Ok, I'll stop now.

I can feel an "SU Review Generator" program coming on....

[jdanddiet]

What does everyone think of the fairly average reviews JSW 2 got? OK, so it's just JSW with extra rooms but personally I enjoyed it just as much.

I think the problem with JSW2 was that it wasn't really Jet Set Willy 2. People were desperate to play Miner Willy Meets the Taxman, it had been talked about for months at this point and by the time JSW2 came out, it did feel like a bit of a "greatest hits" cash in by the label while the artist was still trying to come up with the next album (while having writer's block!).

When it was released in 1985, it was a strange time as although it had only been about 12 months since Jet Set Willy, it seemed like the Spectrum had really moved on. Maybe it had moved into the era of "graphics over gameplay", but I remember picking up Jet Set Willy II on the 6 Pack Vol 2 compilation and thinking it was a really good game, but one of the problems with the original JSW was that it was just too big and sprawling (especially compared to the original Manic Miner) and adding another 70 rooms didn't really help. But I guess JSW2 is what JSW should have been and in a way it should be held in higher regard.

Anyway, I searched for some of the games that a) I really enjoyed back in the 80s and b) I still play now and I was surprised that one of my favourite games, Footballer of the Year, received some strange reviews when it was first released. 68% in Crash, 7/10 in Your Sinclair but a measly 1 out of 5 from Sinclair User. Yes, 1 out of 5!

This was on the same page that Super Soccer from Imagine, which is an absolute pile of crap, got 4/5!

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 59&page=46

I was thinking "how did I get a hold of Footballer of the Year originally" and I remembered that my football daft friend (who would even buy those niche football management games from Cult) bought both Super Soccer AND Footballer of the Year that month. We were desperate to try out Super Soccer, it sounded like a pseudo sequel to Match Day (it was even from the same label, well, sort of the same label) and it was so disappointing. How did it get 4/5 in Sinclair User (the mag I read at the time) AND 8/10 in Your Sinclair (the mag he read at the time, although we swapped in 87)???

But Footballer of the Year really captured the essence of 8-bit home computer games. It didn't even bother to try and recreate the game of Football. Instead it took on a more surreal approach. You control a football. That football can only attack at goal, with either defenders or as a penalty. It was basically Trailblazer but on a football pitch. In certain scenarios. But then the rest of the game was kind of like a board game. You bought cards that allowed you to play matches. You could gamble. Incidents would happen to you that could help or hinder your progress. In fact, it was turned into a board game... "Gary Lineker's sh*t Your Pants at the World Cup". Sorry, "Gary Lineker's Footballer of the Year"

But it was such good fun. You weren't playing football, you were playing a great little game that could only really happen on a computer (unless you were playing the board game, but it didn't have the Trailblazer football bits). It must have done well enough through word of mouth as it managed to get a sequel.

I did a feature on FOTY for Retro Gamer. It was actually based on a board game too, an idea submitted to Gremlin by two brothers. They naturally decided it would make a good videogame, and dev was led by chris shrigley on the (spits) c64.

So it went board game > video game > board game

[toot_toot]

[mention]jdanddiet[/mention] that’s a great story, thanks for sharing! What issue was the article in? I used to get retro gamer every month but stopped a few years ago, my wife complained our book shelves were too full of them!

[jdanddiet]

@jdanddiet that’s a great story, thanks for sharing! What issue was the article in? I used to get retro gamer every month but stopped a few years ago, my wife complained our book shelves were too full of them!

Issue 204, PC Engine mini cover.

Grounds for immediate divorce imo

[Mousey]

Colony is a lot of game for your £1.99, but yet got bad reviews in 2 of the 3 major Speccy magazines. It got 45% in Crash and 4/10 in Your Sinclair (not reviewed in Sinclair User).

I understand Colony is not perfect; there is a way to abuse solar panels to make your life a lot easier, and the game has no fixed ending (which is the bigger problem for me), but there were many higher scoring full price releases without the depth of this game.

At least Computer Gamer magazine gave it 73%, and they thought it cost £2.99! If I had to rate it I would go for around 80%; more if it had an ending.

[Joefish]

Anyone **** reviewing modern homebrew who complains that a 48K game doesn't use all the extra features of a 128K.

[clebin]

Prompted by the Top 100 thread. Universal Hero. I love pretty much everything about that game. Anyway, Your Sinclair gave it a criminal 5/10.

"For the most part the problems are of the standard 'find the use for the object' type. Nothing terribly exciting there! And that's about it. Average. Could try harder."

There's the classic "lack of originality" tax that some reviewers routinely apply to shoot-em-ups, driving games and anything that's not, I don't know, Stifflip & Co. It doesn't tell me anything about the game, just "I'm bored with my job". I think it's great at any price personally, but more objectively speaking, what was this person expecting for £1.99?

[jdanddiet]

Prompted by the Top 100 thread. Universal Hero. I love pretty much everything about that game. Anyway, Your Sinclair gave it a criminal 5/10.

"For the most part the problems are of the standard 'find the use for the object' type. Nothing terribly exciting there! And that's about it. Average. Could try harder."

There's the classic "lack of originality" tax that some reviewers routinely apply to shoot-em-ups, driving games and anything that's not, I don't know, Stifflip & Co. It doesn't tell me anything about the game, just "I'm bored with my job". I think it's great at any price personally, but more objectively speaking, what was this person expecting for £1.99?

It's a fantastic game, a lovely tongue in cheek arcade adventure

[Morkin]

There's the classic "lack of originality" tax that some reviewers routinely apply to shoot-em-ups, driving games and anything that's not, I don't know, Stifflip & Co. It doesn't tell me anything about the game, just "I'm bored with my job". I think it's great at any price personally, but more objectively speaking, what was this person expecting for £1.99?

I'm trying to remember, I think one of the mags had an 'originality' score as one of their ratings, but I can't remember which. I thought it might have been Crash in their early days, but I was thinking of their 'Use of computer' rating.

[blucey]

SU gave Megabucks 2 out of 5.