BIGBOX THRILLS!

What's the best way to catch up on all the great games that appeared on the Spectrum a while back. One: go out and buy every single one and spend a fortune? Tow: pop around to your mate's house and nick his copies? Or three: take a trip down to your local software shop and snap up one of the great new compilations? Well, one's only for the stupid, two's only for complete basts, so it must be three! NICK ROBERTS gives you the low-down on the current hits in compilation land!

Ocean
£15.99

There's some scorching hot software on this compilation, and plenty of variety, too - boredom's definitely not a word in Power Up's dictionary. On offer are Altered Beast, Chase HQ, Rainbow Islands, X-Out and Turrican.

I just love playing Rainbow Islands, I could play it until the cows come home (and then, perhaps, a bit more). The cute characters and gameplay is addictive from the start. Taken from the colourful Taito coin-op, the Spectrum version is surprisingly good, capturing all the excitement of the arcade and keeping the excellent graphics and sound too. A corker!

Turrican is another colourful game, and a real good blast. The muititude of weaponry add-ons and variation in the aliens makes it a shoot-'em-up fan's heaven!

Chase HQ is probably the ultimate driving game on the Speccy. You have to chase (no, really?) the criminals in your souped-up sports car and bash them off the road to arrest them. Personally, if I could afford a fast car I wouldn't want to bash it up!

Altered Beast gets right away from laser guns and cars. You are now a dead hero. The daughter of a god has been kidnapped and in an attempt to get her back you have been resurrected. Lots of supernatural action with punches and kicks galore.

X-Out finishes off the compilation with a blast. Lots of space ships, lots of firepower and plenty of joystick wrecking action.

Power Up is an excellent pack, you'll be stuck to your screen for ages!

X-Out: 17/20
Chase HQ: 17/20
Turrican: 18/20
Altered Beast: 18/20
Rainbow Islands: 20/20

Ocean
£16.34 cass (yikes!)/£19.99 disk
Reviewer: Linda Barker

A power-up, as every self-respecting Spec-chum knows, is something you pick up off the pavement to increase your energy. Thus it follows that if you buy this compilation you'll be bouncing all over the shop and be really keen to take up fencing or something. (Probably.) But let's take the risk anyway, eh?

CHASE HQ

Megagamed at 94°, this is a classic driving game with a bit of a twist. Instead of just whizzing aimlessly down a road, you're actually a cop chasing criminals. There's a sort of mini monitor CB radio thing that tells you tour missions (care of the beautiful Nancy back at base) and you get drive a rather whizzo Porsche 928 that speeds incredibly quickly down a very nice smoothly-scrolling road. It's a game with real character (infinitely better than its sequel) and a lot of fun.
1991 Verdict: 92°

RAINBOW ISLANDS
Everybody's favourite game of all time? Well we'd certainly bet on it. That's right, kids, the cutest platform game of them all is back in town, so if you haven't already got it (welcome back to the planet earth) then now's your chance to get smart. There's loads of colour, loads of rainbows and some ladybirds. It's quite simply one of the greatest things ever invented and got a massive 94° back in April 1990. And we can't really say much more than that. (Other the I'll go one better than last year's score simply 'cos of the ladybirds.)
1991 verdict: 95° (phwoar!)

TURRICAN
Gosh, it only seems like yesterday since we were reviewing this spritely little corker (in fact we Megagamed it back in August). Turrican's an absolutley massive game (there are 5 worlds and 13 levels to travel through). with loads (and loads!) of secret bonus rooms and hidden power-ups dotted around the place. The gameplay's as addictive as a tin of chocolate-coated Hobnobs, but where it really knocks you for 6 is in the graphics dept. They're quite simply incredible. And the sequel's on its way even as we speak.
1991 Verdict: 90°

X-OUT
Aliens have infested our oceans and it's your job to go and kill them all. Simple really. X-Out is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up with 8 levels and lots of pretty sub-aqua views. Basically it's R-Type meets Jacques Cousteau, and although none the worse off for that it's obviously not quite as good. We gave it 84° in March last year. That looks a bit generous one year later so we'll deduct a couple of points for its slight lack of excitement.
1991 Verdict: 82°

ALTERED BEAST
An Activision original in which you play a chap brought back from the dead to save some bod's daughter. You start on as a normal-looking chap but metamorphose into a flying dragon, a blue bear and a golden werewolf along the way. But don't worry, it's just a stage you're going through (ho ho!). It's got colour, it's got action, it's got speed. But it's a bit hard to really see what's going on. We gave it 80° at the end of '89, which is perhaps a bit unfair. A very competent beat-'em-up with some appealing bits. That's what I'd say.
1991 Verdict: 83°

And there we have it A super-stonker compilation if ever we saw one! Usually, you get a couple of duds with these things, but Altered Beast and X-Out are well above par. And the other 3 are total classics. Ocean have obviously gone out of their way to release a premium compilation and this is just about as good as you can get. An incredible bargain then if (by some incredible spook) you haven't got any of them.