REPLAY

We've got compilations coming out of our ears this month! (And nearly as many reviewers!) So come on baby, let's go!

Domark
£12.99 cass
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

It probably wasn't a massively hard job for Domark to decide which three Bond games to include in their compilation, not when you consider that only three of their conversions have actually been any good. That's right, they've only included the ones with an 'L' in the title, but not The Living Daylights.

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

For the most part this is a shamelessly obvious Spy Hunter rip-off. It stars you as the driver of a car which is speeding feverishly up a vertically scrolling screen. Apart from drive, what you've got to do is avoid other vehicles and pick up weapons. A speedboat level, an underwater level and a running-down-a-corridor level are also included, but things become dull pretty quickly.
65°

A LICENCE TO KILL

This is the James Bond game that has been re-released on compilations more times than I've had my appendix out. It's also the oldest of the included games and arguably the best. It adopts the form of six contrasting levels, all of the addictive shoot-'em-up variety. Er, and the graphics are nice too.
75°

LIVE AND LET DIE

Take Road Blasters, remove the car, add a speedboat, change the name to Live And Let Die and you'll realise that what I'm trying to say is that Live And Let Die is quite like Road Blasters (but with a speedboat instead of a car). 'Quite' is the most suitable adverb I can come up with to describe the fun factor, but a bug (in my version at least) that won't allow you past Level Three doesn't help. In fact, it completely ruins the whole game.
65°

And there you go, an average compilation. Buy it at your own (and no one else's) discretion.

Label: Domark
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £12.99 Tape, N/A Disk
Reviewer: Steve Keen

The name is Bond, James Bond. Over the last few decades this famous celluloid super-spy has struck fear into the hearts and minds of some amazingly camp super-criminals.

Armed with his PPK and polite English public school banter or schlightly reefined shhcottish drawl, there probably isn't a better cinema character you could choose to transfer onto the computer screen. But the original all-pace action of the Bond films is sadly lacking in DoMark's Bond compilation.

The titles included are Live And Let Die, Licence To Kill and The Spy Who Loved Me, the plots meandering around the respective film scenarios. Live and Let Die involves Bond fighting a vicious Caribbean dictator and aspiring drug baron, from the comfort of a powerboat, shooting and rocketing baddies as he whisks his way through canals, swamps and fjords avoiding close contact with enemy mines and fire power. The ever-friendly CIA drop all the weapons and supplies necessary for Bond to finish the mission - all you have to do is pick them up.

The Spy Who Loved Me was the movie that unleashed Q's Lotus Esprit turbo special on an unsuspecting world and if I ever discover who stole my model of it twelve years ago I'll have 'em. The plot involves Bond and a beautiful Russian spy investigating the disappearance of Soviet and British nuclear Submarines. The baddie is a big fish called Stromberg and the action takes place on land and water. You even encounter Jaws the famous metal toothed man!

Licence to Kill has our her takes on an evil drug baron. A variety of transport including a helicopter, a seaplane and some underwater swimming are all represented.

The graphics and gameplay of all these games was originally disappointing, and unlike a Chatea Neuf de Pape, they don't improve with age. That's not to say they're completely dire - if anything, like our excellent white wine, they're extremely dry. It's just that you'd have hoped for something with a little more body with licences like this.

Licence to Kill has the best bouquet of the bunch, due to the number of vehicles and scenarios yo have to master but overall, even with three games in the package I'm afraid they not going to leave you either shaken or even gently stirred.

GARTH:
I'm a great Bond fan, but there's neither Pussy Galore, Plenty O'Toole to keep up your interest. The compilation is certainly never going to give you a Good Night so althought the games are a bit wet, your Martini should always remain dry.