Reviews
Reviews by Darko (159)
A superb fighting game. Very few have come close to its brilliance since. A must for Spectrum enthusiasts.
Gutz, 24 Feb 2019 (Rating: 2)
Was really disappointed with this. Special FX done a number of excellent games for Ocean but this isn't close to being one of them.
The original arcade game, written by SNK before their Neo-Geo glory days, isn't all that great so you'd expect this conversion to be just as mediocre. Turns out it's even worse.
It may not look faithful because of the monochrome graphics but it sure plays like it should. Far from perfect but still a decent conversion.
As far as Spectrum arcade conversions, few can hold a candle to Rainbow Islands. Every single reviewer on this game has given it a 5 and it's pretty much impossible for me not to follow suit. This is one of the most outstanding ZX Spectrum games let alone conversions.
Most ZX Spectrum football games are rubbish, so to play one as nice as this is a refreshing change. I'm trying to think of another Spanish football game that wasn't very good, because this trumps it.
Found it. This is pretty rubbish, Michel's game is much better.
B-Side games usually mean it's pretty crap, this is no exception. Stick to the proper football game on Side A.
A classic game that never seems to get old. Still a joy to play today.
While not in the level of Deathchase this is still an enjoyable game from the same author.
The first part is really good but the second part has no ending and so it becomes a bore.
This was a bit of an oddball cartoon that really did nothing to interest me. And naturally neither does this game for that matter.
Thrust, 28 Feb 2019 (Rating: 2)
This is near impossible to play let alone complete. Hugely overrated game for me.
Titus' best Spectrum game, and even then it's pretty poor. Did this company produce anything that was good?
This is pretty interesting. Playing the game as both teams is confusing but it still has some kind of enjoyment to keep you amused. I too don't see myself doing an entire season of this though, there just isn't enough in it to justify the time amd effort.
This was really good back in the 80's. Maybe doesn't hold up to much now but back then this was a lot of fun. Nothing beat the feelng of seeing your opponent's head fly off his body and fall to the ground.
Where do I possibly begin with this travesty and what can I possibly say that hasn't been said already? This hardly resembles the movie or the comic or it hardly resembles Dick Tracy as a whole. It's almost as if it was written as a copy of it and yet they still managed to get it licensed. And it's not even the worst licensed game they did either, you can thank Superman for that.
Cobra, 02 Mar 2019 (Rating: 3)
Fabulous graphics but too tough for me. Never really liked this much in spite of its brilliant look.
MY EYES!! How could you possibly play this and not go blind? Or even get a seizure?
Shit-Fighter. That's all that needs to be said. The original game sucked and this port sucks even more.
Not for me. Too awkward, too difficult, tried it yesterday and today and always crashed and stalled. Not for casuals.
Wonderful. One of my personal favourite games of all-time.
Pang, 04 Mar 2019 (Rating: 5)
Ocean had another winner with this one. Beautiful graphics, impressive presentation and fun gameplay make this one of best arcade conversions on the ZX Spectrum.
Pretty decent racing game, not outstanding but not bad.
Complete rubbish. One of the very worst sports games you'll find on the ZX Spectrum. The concept is a bit daft but at least the arcade version is worth playing, this definitely is not.
Nice graphics but something feels off with the gameplay. That’s the fault of the arcade version though. As far as the conversion goes this is pretty accurate.
Zybex, 05 Mar 2019 (Rating: 5)
One of the best budget shoot 'em ups. For £2.99 this was a steal!
Always did like this game. It isn’t to everyone’s liking, it can be dull to play, but I always found some joy with this one.
Abysmal in every single level. Deservedly considered one of the very worst ZX Spectrum games.
Ninja, 07 Mar 2019 (Rating: 2)
Poorly written game loaded with bugs.
Simply the best in soccer games on the ZX Spectrum.
Poor Emlyn. As well as bearing his name on the greatest soccer game on the ZX Spectrum he also bears his name on this really poor quiz game. It doesn't look too bad but it's poorly coded with correct answers counting as incorrect.
Always was a pretty nice game in spite of the development hell it went through. The gameplay works perfectly fine and it's good fun.
It's a bit different but it's also a bit crap.
Not bad but it has plenty of problems that hamper it, namely the narrow screen, the monochrome graphics which makes things hard to see and the terrible noise that's meant to be title music. My ears are still hurting after listening to it. C64 owners would find this “Spectrum Remix” laughable.
I would not say this is the best Bond game on the ZX Spectrum, it's more like the only good Bond game on the ZX Spectrum.
Certainly not Tiertex's worse conversion. In fact it’s one of their more decent offerings.
Overpriced, overhyped, overrated. Not all bad really but certainly not worth the price nor the hype.
The cream of the crop! The first of its kind and still one of the very best of all-time.
While lacking some charm from the original it's still a very worthy sequel and an excellent management game in its own right.
To take a quote from Michael Lee Aday, two out of three ain't bad. The first two Football Manager games are legendary classics, but the third installment is a classic fail and shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as the first two games.
Clearly rushed for the World Cup and it shows. Why not re-code Football Manager 2 and alter things to give it an international look? A copy and paste of that design is better than whatever this is meant to be. This looks more aged that the original!
This isn't really a bad game, especially when you consider the author's other titles such as Los Angeles SWAT which was abysmal. The main problems for this however were, for its concept, it was overpriced at £8.95 for cassette and £14.95 for disk and outdated for 1988 standards. But aside from that it's not too shabby.
It has a few nigglings, like the monochrome graphics and the crosshair being more sensitive than you'd like it to be, but it works well enough to be enjoyed. Quite a nice conversion.
Zythum, 10 Mar 2019 (Rating: 3)
Not bad but his jumps spoils the fun. If he had a more straightforward jump this would've been more pleasing.
It plays pretty well but the key layout is horrible. Luckily I played this with a controller. Pretty nice game to play though if you can avoid using the keys.
Horrible, horrible game. Even at £1.99 this would have been a waste.
I'll give the author credit, the effort is clearly there. The execution though lets the whole game down. Let’s face it, American Football simply wasn’t cut out for the humble home computers.
The arcade game is average at best, but the Spectrum port is actually pretty good. Plays really well.
Zenji, 15 Mar 2019 (Rating: 4)
Enjoyable puzzle game with plenty of thrills and challenges to keep you going.
Really fun game with a nice course designer to go with it. The computer player is very unfair but it's still fun to play.
Brilliant game. The best racing game on the Spectrum.
The music is terrific, too bad about the rest of it though.
It's alright, not great but fairly playable and decent.
This could have been a very decent shoot 'em up if not for the horrid backgrounds interjecting with the in-game graphics. I believe somebody modded the game to remove the backgrounds so it looks much better and it's downloadable somewhere, but here we have to acknowledge the original version, even if it means you'll go blind afterwards.
Very dull game. What exactly does it have to do with the movie anyway? The Arnie sprite is a bit nice and the music is pretty good, but that’s about it.
Red Heat wasn't a good game, it was a bad game, but it wasn't a terrible game. This however is atrocious. The only thing worth talking about in this game is the "I'll be back" sampled speech and that only lasts a second, everything else is dire.
NARC, 18 Mar 2019 (Rating: 4)
Nice arcade conversion. Plays really well and is very favourable to the original arcade game's look, style and gameplay.
A right horror of a game!
Great music but the game is pretty boring.
Not the finest conversion, there are better arcade conversions on the ZX Spectrum and there are better conversions of this game elsewhere. Saying that it's memorable and good fun nevertheless.
Tetris, 21 Mar 2019 (Rating: 3)
This could have been better. Excellent music though.
Great music but the whole game feels pretty average overall.
People say this is a great game and people say this is a pile of crap, it's neither. What it is however is a weak offering of what was and still is one of the most iconic arcade games ever.
A tedious bland arcade game gets a tedious bland conversion. Nothing too exciting here. And why is Axe Battler wearing no pants?
2088, 26 Mar 2019 (Rating: 3)
The magazine reviewers have a point with the outdated graphics but the game itself is passible, and that's what matters the most.
This does what Out Run couldn’t, produce speed and excitement. And it was considerably cheaper too. This was a complete steal for its price.
Always enjoyed this one. I never really done too well on it but it's always a nice little game to go back to so often.
The arcade game is mediocre enough, but this port is much uglier and plays much worse.
An enjoyable shoot 'em up. Joffa did better games of course but it's a worthy game for fans of the genre.
As good a company as Ocean were they had their low points like everyone else, this game being a prime example.
Not the fanciest looking pinball game and it lacks the features to make it stand out, but I tell you what it's bloody fast! It's also playable and really good fun. Really was surprised with this.
Elite, 30 Apr 2019 (Rating: 3)
Not a game I particularly enjoyed it has to be said but I feel describing it as “poor” is very unfair since it was a monumental technical achievement and extremely well programmed. It just wasn't my game.
The movie stunk but the game is actually quite excellent.
The arcade is only half decent, so too is this conversion as a matter of fact.
The Arcade and Mega Drive versions were at least decent but a lot of ports left a lot to be desired, this being one of them. Will give credit for one thing though, the music was amazing, but everything else was poor.
This has always been a guilty pleasure of mine and I keep coming back to it and enjoy it.
Exolon, 12 Jun 2019 (Rating: 3)
Colourful yes but the gameplay just didn't do it for me.
Tricky game and a bit of a pain in the ass frankly but good fun once you get the hang of it.
Never got on with this. Always saw it as an overrated game.
A disappointing arcade conversion. Not terrible by any means but it lacks quality and it's forgettable.
Starts off as an intriguing and curious title but quickly becomes a boring grind. For a full-priced game you expected this to be so much more than it is.
Good idea to expand the game but the fighting mechanics are much much weaker compared to the brilliant original which lets it down badly.
Jetpac, 23 Jun 2019 (Rating: 5)
Classic game, still fun to play after all these years.
Huge step backwards from the classic Jetpac. Graphics are as nice but the gameplay is well below the standards Jetpac set. A hugely disappointing sequel.
A nice platformer with lovely colourful graphics and has the gameplay to match. Very playable and very worthwhile.
Upgrades of classic games rarely work, this though is one example that does. Not perfect but it's still a worthy clone.
Always was an enjoyable game to play and even now it still holds up well. Stick to playing the 48K version though because the 128K tune is dire.
Very inferior to the sublime original. Looks and gameplay both falling short of what was expected. Beyond disappointed.
Best boxing game on the Spectrum. There were a few good ones but none of them came close to exceeding this.
As good as the original in my book. The spaceship is too large and does make you a particularly easy target to be shot at but apart from that it's pretty nice.
Really disappointing game. The plot was rubbish and the gameplay was as poor as poor can get. And you can't blame the Spectrum port either as this game sucks on ever format it was released for. I don't know which is worse, this game or current Simpsons episodes.
I had a really hard time with this, from the controls to the multiload. The presentation is there but the game itself seems flawed. Perhaps this was one that should have stayed in 16-bit.
IK+, 24 Apr 2020 (Rating: 5)
Best fighting game on the Speccy. This and Way of the Exploding Fist were tops, this just pips Fist to the post.
For me, this ranks among the best arcade conversations on the Speccy. Graphics and gameplay are top notch and it plays so much better than the original. If you were going to do an arcade conversation, this was how to do it.
iD, 24 Apr 2020 (Rating: 4)
This always intrigued me and I keep going back to it from time to time. Clever yet confusing and sometimes it makes absolutely no sense, but it's a fascinating concept that simply can't be ignored.
Nice game this. Looks great and really playable and enjoyable. I bought it years ago hoping it would be at least decent, it was more than that.
Average conversion of a brilliant arcade game. It’s not bad but certainly not one of the highlights of coin-op conversions on the Speccy.
On paper it would appear to be a nice game to enjoy, however I found this at large to be be unplayable and unenjoyable.
Klax, 27 Apr 2020 (Rating: 3)
Always did see Klax as an overrated title. The Speccy version is perfect and looks and plays just as the arcade version did, but I was never fond of it personally.
Another arcade game I never really liked, though I will say the Speccy version is better because of its use of colour and better music. The gameplay though is still annoying, frustrating and not much fun for me.
Average at best really. One ghost per screen does spoil it but it's what to expect with a game written in basic and as apart of a massive compilation of games. Saying that, this might have been one of the better games in that compilation.
Would have been a really fun platformer if not for the dreadful scrolling, though it’s still a decent game to try out and it may surprise you.
Nice graphics but the gameplay is far too frustrating to enjoy.
Truthfully, they should have left this one alone. This was never going to work for a computer game and alas it doesn't work here. Subbuteo in real life is fun, enthralling and sore on your fingers, this computer game version is dull, confusing and sore on your brain. One licence too far I think.
Not without its faults by any means and it sure doesn't look pretty, but it plays better than most football games here and that's what's important.
Nice graphics but the gameplay is mediocre at best. Such a pity but then again it's something that's been seen before.
Wow what a truly appalling game. Bad controls, bad gameplay, bad everything. This is an example where 1 is too good a score and we should be giving it minus points instead.
Nice graphics, good music, but the gameplay isn't all that impressive, an all too familiar tale. If the game was more balanced and fair with the time going down at a normal pace rather than as quick as it does then this would have been so much better.
A tremendous technical accomplishment. Absolutely stands out as one of the finest games on any system let alone the Spectrum. Graphics, gameplay, music and speech are all excellent and this fully deserves all the acclaim it got then and still gets now. Yes, it's a hard game, but it's playable once you work out the right strategy, and much more so, it's bloody fantastic.
Nice music but the gameplay is far too weak and the graphics are bland. When you look at whose involved in the game and their other work, it's quite a surprise for this to misfire so badly.
Quickly fired away and promptly forgotten.
California Games is by right a great, fun game, but that largely depends on the version you’re playing and this is not that version. It’s very dumbed down with pitiful graphics, complex gameplay, minute sound and no replay value. Epyx weren’t dying yet and this is among their quality games, but this port does it no justice.
Love this game, among the best arcade-adventure games I've ever played. Getting this on budget price was a steal.
It's alright really, it's just not very professional and nor is it a simulator, it’s just a race to the finish and that's it, grand prix on skis essentially.
Xeno, 26 Aug 2020 (Rating: 5)
Awesome game, probably not as addicting nowadays but there's no denying it's a belter of a game. Good times with this one.
W*H*B, 30 Aug 2020 (Rating: 5)
Brilliant game. A true challenge for puzzle fans.
Zynaps, 01 Sep 2020 (Rating: 5)
The best shoot 'em up on the Spectrum. Glorious in every way and looks and plays excellent today.
I will say Enduro Racer wasn’t a good conversion full stop let alone on the Spectrum. This is pretty decent but there are better racing games and better arcade conversions. However the Amstrad version is not very good and the Commodore 64 version is an abomination, so this version is where you want to go for some 8-bit Enduro Racer, it’s not great but it’s a quintillion times better than the C64 version.
This is unplayable! I can't last two minutes! Nice graphics but the game design is piss.
Not a Joffa classic but still charmful and enjoyable.
This looks great for sure, lovely colourful graphics in this one, but it’s let down by largely average gameplay.
Xarq, 15 Sep 2020 (Rating: 2)
More or less the same as Panzadrome, nice colourful graphics let down by shoddy gameplay, only this game was way less enjoyable than Panzadrome.
How the hell this got a Crash Smash I'll never know.
I personally enjoyed this. Requires a lot of skill and strategy to succeed but it's thrilling and kept me gripped. Cool tune as well.
I'm sure the other versions are better but this port is dire. I don't want to give it a 1 rating but what is there to score points on? The graphics are bad, the gameplay is boring, you hardly go anywhere without some mishap happening, I struggled to find one good thing about this game.
A rubbish Taito arcade game gets a rubbish Spectrum port.
This is one ugly motherfucker
The thought of playing strip poker with Samantha Fox and seeing her take her kit off was appealing at the time. But take that element away and you have a really boring game of seven card stud which is on the b-side anyway. Not worth the time anymore.
The arcade game isn't all that great, but this port is absolutely laughably horrific. It's clear poor Paul Houbart wasn't really cut out to program games, given this is bad, Wizard Warz isn't much to shout about either and that he pretty much done a rubbish job with Total Recall before it was handed off to a new team.
If this was a budget game I would have cut it some slack, but it was a full priced title and a very dull and uneventful one.
Not the worst of its kind but certainly far less enjoyable than I hoped it would be. Very disappointing.
A cheap alternative to Starquake and a pretty good one. Doesn't quite match the quality but still holds up as a playable title. Quite enjoyed this in fact.
I love this game. The graphics are superb and the gameplay is compelling, gripping and masterful, the kind of enjoyment that other games have tried to emulate, Scumball being one, but they never managed to outclass it. It is a truly wonderful game and something I personally see as a forgotten classic as it's not nearly mentioned as much as other classic games such as Manic Miner, Head Over Heels and Rainbow Islands to name a few. Those games have a ton of reviews while this is the first one for this game, not that I'm unhappy about it, it just proves my point that it's been forgotten about somewhat. Maybe it isn't a classic for the purists but it is for me for I absolutely loved this game.
What could, and perhaps should, have been a great puzzle game is ultimately ruined by crap controls and bad execution. Alas it's a great big disappointment instead.
Some things should really have been left untouched, Pictionary is one of those things. I suppose a drawing game could work and board games certainly work with the right style and design, but Pictionary doesn't for a variety of reasons. The slow pace, the confusing setup, the cheating gameplay, it is badly designed and badly implemented you can't help but wonder why someone bothered to convert it into a program. The fact that a computer version exists is not surprising but did it really need to happen?
Nice idea of a breakout variant especially with the competitive nature of it. However, the gameplay doesn't quite pull it off and my experience was more of annoyance rather than enjoyment.
The arcade game isn't so hot wnd clearly isn't among Irem's best work, leaving little wonder why they were more renowned for their shooters more than anything. And naturally this port wasn't going to be hot either, in fact it's no better. You would have expected better from the team that brought us R-Type two years earlier.
Always liked this game. Really nice graphics and the gameplay is very enjoyable though I never liked the music and the jumping can be a nuisance at times. But minor faults aside it's good fun.
This isn't a bad game really, it's just really hard. There is nice graphics and sound but the game itself is a bit bland and a bit lacking in excitement, oh and did I mention it was hard?
Truth be told the Spectrum version of Boulder Dash did nothing for me. It is a good game BUT I stress that it's a good game depending on the system. The Spectrum port is ugly and bland.
Best version of Tetris on the Spectrum. Excellent gameplay and excellent music makes this a winner. An unofficial sequel outdoes the licenced original.
Love this game. Played it loads back in the day and still looks and plays well today. Lots of charm and humour associated with it. The first game is a bit naff, this one though is a massive improvement. Who said sequels were crap?
Ocean done a brilliant version of Rengade, they done a brilliant version of Cabal, they done a brilliant version of Pang, Smash TV does not join that list by a considerable margain. It's not poor by any means but it is nothing special nor exciting and it is nothing more than a massive missed opportunity.
A breakout offshoot that somewhat misses the mark of what makes the genre enjoyable. The music however is superb and is easily its saving grace, and all I'll remember this game for to be honest.
I forgot this game too and shame on me. Bloody fantastic. I remember I got this in a bundle of roughly four or five games, the others were crap as this was the only one worth playing.
Had to see this for myself and now I wish I hadn't have bothered. Clearly written "for a laugh" but yet no one's laughing. Didn't check to see if they wrote more games and nor do I care but if they did then God help us.
A good idea on the surface but it turns out to be a hollow goalkeeper kind-of simulator that's badly let down by truly monotonous gameplay and laughable physics. Note I said "kind-of", because it's clearly meant to be one but it doesn't quite play out that way.
Vixen, 20 Apr 2021 (Rating: 2)
Sex sells, that's all that needs to be said. Take a mediocre game, give it a raunchy cover and it'll sell like pancakes on Pancake Tuesday, or at least it did back then anyway. Nowadays, perhaps not but women were marketing tools back then especially those with big breasts, this and Barbarian serves as proof, except Barbarian was at least a good game whereas this isn't.
A must play game. Yes the sound is irritating but there is no denying the beauty and brilliance of this game.
Strike, 20 Apr 2021 (Rating: 2)
Bowling games should be straightforward in design but someone forgot to tell that to Binary Design. The same team who brought us the simplistic darts game 180 gave us an overly complicated bowling game. I could not work out the controls at all and usually ended up dropping the ball rather than rolling it on the lane. It has a nice look but the playability is almost nonexistant.
A pathetic excuse for a soccer game that almost feels like it’s been written for a joke. Among the most dire piece of gameplay you will find in any sport simulation game. And this got good reviews from SU and YS, which is just baffling. And it’s easy to say “well it just doesn’t play that well nowadays”, but this didn’t play well, at all. In the same year International Match Day was released, which granted was the same as Match Day, but it plays so much better than whatever this was meant to be.
NOTE
In response to Juan F. Ramirez’s review regarding the tune, both this and Match Day, and International Match Day as well for that matter (and I’m sure there are others) use the theme song for Match of the Day, a BBC football highlights programme which still runs to this day. So it’s not like this game was trying to take the piss with that but from the state of the gameplay I can see why you suspected it. This game has a second theme tune as well which is, well a lot worse.
This came out the same year as Arkanoid and Batty. There are not enough words to describe how inferior this game is compared to those two breakout behemoths. Sure a lot of breakout games are not great but this isn't even that, it's just bad. How do you do breakout THIS bad and get a commercial release from it AND get it ported to the Amstrad CPC and MSX?
Thank you Sir Clive! Gone you may be but your legacy and influence will long on.
Always was a nice little game this, simple look and simple concept and overall it is neat and enjoyable.
In agreement that this is a far better game compared to the original Crazy Cars. The graphics are better and the gameplay is much improved and is less of a drag like the first one was. Not brilliant, it's still not on the same league as Chase HQ or WEC for instance, but a definite improvement from Crazy Cars 1.
I too never got on board with this game. Seemed too random to get to grips with properly with the bonus items for me getting more in the way than anything.
I never owned it myself but a schoolmate had it and showed it to me and he was whizzing through the first few levels and making it look easy and yet I couldn't get past level one. Even now I'm playing the game on an emulator on my computer and watching a walkthrough on my tablet and still I cannot finish level one! So infuriating and annoying.
I can easily give this a 3 like YOR did since our experiences are relatively similar, but I give the extra mark for its beauty and cleverness in design. And it's got Sir Clive in it, bless him.
They left out a word in the title, it should read Phileas Fogg's Boring Balloon Battles.
Obviously stripped down to meet the limitations but thankfully the thrill and enjoyment remains in tact. And for its price this was an absolute bargain buy!
