Yes, as I was saying, totally original. (Grrr - Ed)
And I've gone for the penultimate YS, not the final one, because, well, the final one (and I don't really count the Retro Gamer free gift of YS issue 94 as canon, nice though it was) has no game reviews at all (albeit it does a massive list of all the ratings they gave to every game in all the previous issues).
TL:DR; this was the last of the holy trinity of the big three UK Speccy mags to review any games.
And this thread will be over pretty quickly really, because like @bluespikey, this is for game reviews only, in the order they appear in the mag, and the amount of them in the dying embers of the commercial era are... frankly lower than a Welsh residential speed limit. You could count the amount of releases on the fingers of a leper. Plus, they are all rereleases!
Helter Skelter by Audiogenic.
Originally from 1991 when it came out for £10.99, here it is on a £3.99 outing in the summer of 1993. Rich Pelley gave this 79%.
The early Nineties saw a glut of arcade puzzlers and also a rise in 'cutesie' platformers. This game, an original creation from Audiogenic, tries to marry the two genres, like it's the result of a focus group. There's no sign of an actual helter skelter and nor do I hear Ringo Starr shouting about blisters on his fingers. Unsurprisingly, this was also made for the C64 and Amstrad CPC, plus the Amiga and Atari ST. Surprisingly, a version came out for the BBC Micro! (Curiousity had me examine that platform's commercial history and I'm astounded that ended in 1993, same as the Speccy!)
Anyway, this looks and sounds professional. Sharp and smooth graphics and a David Whittaker tune in AY. No complaints there. You are a bouncing ball, the controls are simply left, right and, um, bounce. Not too dissimilar to Revelation Software's Astroball, but Helter Skelter's playing area is literally the screen you are on. And yeah, the password facility is nice to have, but there isn't much a game here. You have to squish a family of marauding sprites. The game has one particular sprite pointed out by an arrow, and sure, you can squish the others (usually by accident), but they tend to spawn into two smaller sprites. It really does help to squish in the order the game wants you to do. There's a bit of a Pang feel to this, as well as an essence of a Breakout clone.
However, as Rich points out, the learning curve for this practically non-existent, especially with a very unforgiving second level. That's where I fell out of love with this game. There hasn't been any serious planning for it. Still, at least it's not Elite's diabolical Hopping Mad (that's Wonderboy replaced some animated love beads thing from Anne Summers).
I wouldn't feel short-changed by this budget rerelease, that's a price point where it belongs. It's not full price fodder and I doubt it made an impact for 16-bit users. If this was on a covertape, you'd be pleased, but not ecstatic about it. Rich's rating and review is pretty fair to it. I feel it's worth 65%.