Reviews

On first impression this looks pretty with its nice looking colourful graphics. The meat in any game though is its gameplay, and this is where my love affair with 1985 ends.

Basically in gameplay terms the game is a disaster, it's so difficult to control your ship, so much so that I've hardly gotten out of the first screen! If I had bought this game I would certainly have been disappointed and I would feel I've wasted my money on a game I can't make any progression in and that's not because I'm a crap player. The game's fundamentals is dreadfully difficult and it makes it very hard to enjoy this game.

Not one of the most redeeming games in Mastertronic's history it has to be said.

Football/Soccer management games don't usually get reviewed but I played a lot of these during my lifetime and having played this a lot lately I decided to give it a review here.

When I initially played this I fell in love with it. Perhaps it was the music that played at the start with the option to play it during the game. Perhaps it was the way you selected your team on a desktop computer. Perhaps it was the way you can use your phone to buy/sell players and recieve info on your opponents. Or perhaps it was watching the match itself where it actually showed some action rather than just text. There were a number of positives with this game, there are however some negatives.

The main problem is the player pool remains the same, when players retire at 31 the only thing that changes is they become 18 again, don't you wish it was like that in real life? The fact is their form rating usually doesn't change and for most players they only diminish, which means by the third season it will be impossible to buy a defender with a rating higher than 5 (out of 9). So it has significant limitations.

So in essence 1st Division Manager is good for one season, after three seasons it becomes a mess, especially after buying the brilliant or world class England players and then selling them off when they become average or worse, soon every player will have a rating of 5 or less. Think if you have injuries.

There is a crafty way to earn more money, look up any player in the datafiles and locate some free agents, then buy them for nothing and then sell them off again, that way you can buy Lineker, Barnes, Shilton, Rush and Robson all in your squad easily.

This could have been a lot more, it's got some great features to make it so but its potential is spoiled by some clumsyness in the code.

2088 was given a poor review from Crash and Your Sinclair while the game was butchered by Mark from Crash, so this appears to be a game to miss, but really I don't know what the fuss was about.

They criticised the graphics, though they are not up to 1988 standards they are fine for me, they are tolerable. The gameplay is pretty good and enjoyable though a bit confusing at times. The sound was described at "bleep and bloop", not every game can have 128K capabilities "Mark from Crash", some of the best games contained "bleep and bloop" sounds effects written in 48K of memory. It's fine.

Overall this is a pretty good game that at the time was a victim of harsh and unfair criticism from supposed "analysts". And they gave Renegade III a great review too. "Analysts"?

North Star has some great graphics as a majority of Gremlin games do and the gameplay is pretty nice and somewhat straightforward, though it has one major drawback for me personally, I really don't like his floating jumping effect. My problem is he'll either jump too short, too far or jump with no direction. It's only one major flaw but it's a very significant one as you will be jumping for much of your journey.

If only for his jumping this certainly would have recieved a 4.

This game wasn't published into the market, which I think is a shame because I rather enjoyed this.

There isn't much to it in all honesty, the moves are quite basic and simple to do but the fights themselves are a bit of a drag, although having said that I did have fun with it. I guess it's the humourous nature of the games that wins over me in the end.

This wouldn't have set the world alight but it would have been a rather nice addition to your game collection.

As soon as I started up Adidas Championship Football I was blown away by the shiny presentation, the wonderful loading screen, the opening graphics and the superb music, it got me really pumped to play a potentially great game, but man what a disappointment!

As soon as the game starts I am treated with such horrible controlling, dribbling with the ball is pretty much impossible. You constantly lose the ball and resort to tackling like a dirty player and if you do manage to keep the ball you can forget about passing it because the ball has no direction, you may as well be greedy and go for glory yourself.

The fact is Adidas Championship Football can look as pretty as it wants too, it just doesn't have the gameplay to match it. In essence Match Day doesn't look so hot and yet its gameplay is much more fun than this.

It is such a pity the gameplay ruins the fun in this, it had all the makings to be quite possibly the best soccer game on the Spectrum, or in the home computer era for that matter but for its unpredictable, unplayable gameplay.

Even though Match Day doesn't look so hot nowadays, even though it moves a bit like constipation, even though it clashes like a malfunctioned kaleidoscope, it's still (for me) a really fun soccer game that I always have fun playing. It's one of those games that always helps me pass the time by with enjoyment and thrills, I just love the gameplay in it, it feels so much like a soccer game when I play it.

As bad as it looks it's still a game I really enjoy playing, it always provides a certain charm to me.

Essentially, International Match Day is the 128K version of Match Day, the main difference apart from the sound is it now has international teams, which is why it's called International Match Day, though it's just European teams, so there's no Brazil. Strangely though, despite it being a 128K upgrade I prefer the 48K original which I'm not entirely sure as to why, maybe I just prefer playing as Ritman Rovers rather than England, not that I am anglophobic or anything, that's just the way it is with me.

I really liked Xenon, it's a quite a cool shooter, it's quite fun to play, but there are two things that annoy me about this which is why I can't give it a 5 rating.

The first thing is mentioned by Raphie and he is so correct, I love the music in this game but it is constantly interupted by the shooting sound, and it's so annoying, which is why I play it in 48K mode and listen to the music on an AY player with it, because then I can enjoy the music and it will never be interupted.

And the second reason is when you die you start all the way from the beginning of the level again, though it's just a personal annoyance, other games had this, Robocop for instance, but I never liked it, much like how most people hate multi-load which I cannot stand either.

If only for these I would have given Xenon a 5 because it's really enjoyable.

I really wanted to like Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quiz, but due to inconsistencies within the game's code I cannot.

It looks like your fairly standard quiz game, like a board game almost. You have squares with various things on it, like fruit and coins to collect, question marks for questions to be asked, squares you that act like barriers that prevent you from moving, squares that steal money from you, all those sorts of things. And the idea of the game after all that is fairly simple and straightforward, from the start you have to go across the screen to reach win and avoid going too far back to allow the lose to catch up, for if it overtakes you, well you lose.

So it sounds like a good game, well as I said at the start of this review the game suffers from a major case of inconsistency, a massive flaw in its code, which makes this impossible to fully enjoy. And it lies in its questions.

You see you will get a question like 'What is Neil's surname in The Young Ones'? The right answer is Pye and when you answer it, it's the wrong answer. After about six more games and again you get this question and again you answer Pye, you are right.

Basically the game has a horrible memory and genuinely doesn't know what a right answer or a wrong answer is, it's pot luck. You can get a really tough question right and think it was a lucky guess, only to get that same question again, think to yourself "I know this one now" and give that same answer, and it's wrong. It's very confusing.

And that is what prevents this game from being good, it's terribly spoiled by inconsistent questions. This could have been a really enjoyable quiz game if not for that.

Future Bike Simulator isn't really a bad game, it's not a terrible game, but it's not a game I consider to be a good one either.

Here's the thing, you know how people complain over Out Run being too slow, well this isn't Out Run because it's fast, the problem is though, it's a little TOO fast.

So fast in fact it's a nightmare to control, you are consistently smashing into the side just asking for your damage bar to run out. What also doesn't help the fact they haven't given the bike any brakes and its speed is automatic, so there is no way of slowing down, you just have to time your cornering to perfection. On top of this is shooting other bikes which can serve as an unnecessary distraction for taking corners.

So this isn't to my liking because it's far too fast and awkward to control.

Bruce Lee is a game that looks a bit crude today and I didn't start playing the Spectrum until a few years ago so I can't use phrases like "it looked good in its day", but I will say that what is lacks in looks it really makes up for in gameplay, which is really great fun.

It's just a simple game to play and get into and I tell you what it is quite addictive too. There isn't much to it in all honesty but it's just too good to dislike, as soon as I played this I got the appeal instantly.

Bruce Lee may not have quite the looks, but it sure does have the gameplay quality to make it stand out as a really fun game. I really enjoy playing this.

Robocop is a game that exceeds limitations, so much so it's frightening. Two things that amaze me the most in this game is its awesome music and the fantastic use of sampled speech, in which I don't recall a better example of sampled speech in any other game compared to this apart from Chase H.Q., which is another Ocean game. I was so blown away when I heard the speech in this game, it's just amazing. And the in-game music is one of my favourite Spectrum tunes, I absolutely love it.

The reason why it doesn't get a 5 however is it can sometimes seem too difficult to progress when there are so many enemies but very few bullets, it takes some strategic tactics to progress through each level. When you do die you start at the beginning of the level again, it's something I should complain about but it's something I've never liked and also found to be a pain, likes how multiload is a nuisance.

But despite this it doesn't prevent Robocop from being a great game, it was very popular back in the day and it's really no wonder as to why.

Robocop 2 isn't a bad sequel and it was never going to match the first game's exploits, but it lacks the fine things that made the first game so great which greatly affects my view for it.

The main thing is while Robocop has some of the most amazing music in any Spectrum game, Robocop 2 has a short continuous tune at the start and none during the game, which did annoy me if I am honest, so I play this game with Robocop's in-game music playing on my AY player instead.

Another problem I have is I personally feel they went backwards on the gameplay, as it's a bit more duller compared to the first game, I didn't get the same sense of enjoyment and thrill here as I did with Robocop, it was missing that buzz, it just doesn't seem as crisp.

Robocop 2 isn't a bad game, it is quite a decent game and a fairly enjoyable one, but it just lacks that fine touch to be considered great, which is a shame because I want to like this as much as Robocop, but I can't seem to.

Ocean in my opinion went a step backwards with Robocop 2, here however they took at least three steps back with Robocop 3.

They changed a lot compared to the previous two. They added a rail shooter type enviroment to it that is rather clumsy because your cursor moves too slow, making it hard to reach your enemies quick, making it easy to lose all your health because they are freely shooting you while you slowly move your cursor towards them. It's hard to look at as the graphics are nowhere near as good as the previous two.

After the rail shooter it returns to the traditional side scrolling game of the previous two but it is much more awkward than the previous two, I found Murphy's movement to be a pain in the ass which makes this hard to progress and hard to enjoy. He moves so fast it's really hard to time your jumps correctly. And as soon as you reach the second part of the game you need to jump over the acid, fall into it it's game over because you only get one life. So after all the trouble getting through the slow rail shooter level your game could end seconds later because Murph can't jump properly.

Robocop 2 was a step backwards but it was still a pretty decent game, Robocop 3 however is below that, it's not very good. I was really disappointed with this.

I love Match Day and I was really excited with the chance to play its sequel Match Day II, as much as I liked it I can't prefer it over the first one.

It does look a bit nicer than Match Day, the player sprites are small but look a bit better. Some do prefer the older graphics and older sprites and I like them too, but I was fine with this change.

The biggest change comes from the gameplay though. Unlike Match Day where your shots were the same unless you weren't moving in that it effectively became a pass, Match Day II's shots are determined by a "kickometer" which can be altered in the options. As well as forward kicks you were given the option for it to read all kicks, including backward ones, so imagine a situation where you were through on goal with one minute left and went to shoot only for the ball to travel backwards.

I can see they were trying to add to the gameplay but this for me kind of ruined it, but I accept it's just an option and so I normally play with either Kick II or Kick III to give it that Match Day feel instead.

Match Day II is a good sequel but I do prefer the first game, its gameplay is just more effective to me compared to this.

O.K. YAH! No not really, more like oh dear me.

O.K. Yah is a shooter where you control a person identified as a "yuppie" on what looks like a skateboard, only jet-powered rather than on wheels. You fly across the screen shooting what appears to look like cans of something and you do so with your hand I believe as he doesn't appear to be holding anything, the hand is shaped like a gun though so maybe I'm missing a trick.

As well as this you must avoid contact with clouds as they kill you, and so too do the explosions of the "enemies" you shoot at, because even though you've shot them their sprite is still there until it's completely disappeared, you can't go through it, even in smithereens it still harms you. So if you think shooting them gives you a clear path you'll be mistaken as you still have to stay away from them even when they are in bits. I suppose that is realistic as you do not want to be near an exploding item, but it is so annoying that you die constantly AFTER shooting the enemy. And since when were clouds fatal?

The game's graphics aren't the best but they aren't bad. I like the look of the yuppie, I don't know why, I just do for some reason. The game's music is short and repeats so it will get on your nerves quite easily. It also has some speech in it, the "O.K. Yah" I referenced at the start of this review. It's quite clear compared to other uses of speech but again it is very repetitive and this too will get on your nerves.

But the one thing that'll get on your nevers the most is the gameplay. It's far too difficult, not only do you have to avoid clouds but avoid the enemies after shooting them, you end up having to do more avoiding than shooting and that won't save your lives either.

I wish this was a novelty game that I can enjoy for a short time before I get bored, but it's not. O.K. Yah is one of the most frustrating games I've ever played and it left me very unsatisfied.

Sharkey's Moll is an Operation Wolf clone set in 1926 Chicago with a gangster theme. It was apparently titled originally Operation Shark before Zeppelin began to crap themselves as the game was developed, so it was changed to Sharkey's Moll instead.

At the start the game's menu screen is quite unique for a Zeppelin release, in that it has title music from Tiny Williams (Sound Images). In over 60 games listed under Zeppelin on the WoS archive, I believe only 7 of them had some form of title music, and most of them were done presumably by the author himself. So this having music from Tiny Williams, who had done Shinobi, NARC and Golden Axe beforehand, adds a bit of prestige in this game, and indeed the title music is excellent as I would have expected from Tiny, who was one of the best music composers in the 8-bit era.

But now to the game itself. And the first thing to note is this is an Operation Wolf clone, even down to copying its monochrome graphics, and making them yellow. So far it sounds like a carbon copy, which like programmer Brian Beuken states it was what Zeppelin told him to do. The graphics obviously aren't all the same though, the soldiers and tanks are replaced with gangsters and cars, and rather than grenades you have molotov cocktails to throw at your enemies.

The graphics aren't bad but it's quite hard to see at times. In Operation Wolf level 1 was yellow and it was fine though level 2 was dark green and it was hard to see. In Sharkey's Moll they have gone for a darker yellow and it's hard to see from the off. I actually think they missed a trick in not going for a black and white look, just like as if you were watching a old gangster movie, it would have made the game look a little more eyecatchy and a bit realistic.

The gameplay is as you would expect from an Operation Wolf clone, you shoot people, they shoot you back, you have your pickups which are ammo, bottles, machine gun and health crate, pretty much the same as Operation Wolf. The flaws in the game are most noticable here however. For instance, the crosshair moves much slower than in Operation Wolf, this make it so difficult to tackle so many enemies at once, by the time you hit one and go to reach another on the other side of the screen you've been hit like three times. This is incredibly annoying. The scrolling is also slower than in Operation Wolf which I think partially causes the slowness in the crosshair, because when you reach the end of the level and it stops scrolling, suddenly your crosshair speeds up.

Also, the game is slightly different in that in levels 1 and 2 you have to progress whilst not shooting the informer who appears in the closing stages of the level. This is fine at first but when you reach the end and it stops scrolling it can be a nuisance, because your informer may get in the way of a health crate you need to survive. If you do shoot the informer you have to do the whole level again.

It's not a bad clone but it's hardly a good one, it seems the game can't handle too much at one time which makes it play slowly, which makes it so difficult, a problem Operation Wolf hardly experienced. You know when they say that clones will almost always be inferior to the original? Sharkey's Moll is a good example.