Star Games
£14.99 cass/£17.99 disk
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

Karate Ace is a whole bunch of games with one thing in common, and it's not necessarily karate, strangely enough.

However, if martial arts sounds like your idea of fun, this could be your lucky day, 'cos this compilation contains some of the bestest oriental-type games around (and some of the worstest too). Glancing down the list below you'll see that most of them date from the early Mesozoic Era, but why let a minor point like that spoil the fun?

So, chop chop, lets not hang about. With no discernible attempt at an eastern accent, here's the rine up...

The Way Of The Exploding Fist:
Need I say more? Oh really? Sigh. Known as 'Fist' to its friends, this is the great-grandaddy of them all, and looks none the worse for wear. Okay, well a bit then. The graphics have since been bettered, and there's very little variety.

But oh how that beeping intro tune brings back memories! And that eye-watering kick in the goolies, probably the all-time greatest move ever. However, the opponents aren't too bright, and repeating a certain move a few times gets you through every time. It's definitely best with two players.

YS hadn't learnt to count way back in '85 when this one appeared, so there's no rating for it, but we liked it all right.

Kung Fu Master:
The only coin-op conversion in the collection, and the worst of the lot in my opinion. The idea is to battle through the five floors of a temple to rescue the poor damsel held captive at the top (sorry ladies!).

This involves beating up the obligatory crowd of baddies with the various moves available to you. The graphics really turned heads when the game first appeared - away mainly - and today they look worse still. Slow, stodgy, tons of colour-clash. Playability isn't too bad, but the whole thing seems so vague it's unlikely to hold your interest for long.

Kung Fu Master managed an eight first time round, but things have changed around here.

Way Of The Tiger:
Maintenant vous parlez. This is a three-part multiloader, but don't hold that against it.

The graphics are what really makes this one, and they look good, even over two years later. The attention to detail is fantastic, particularly in the backgrounds, where fish plop out of rivers, owls fly overhead and peasants walk past pushing carts. Also worthy of a mention is the 3D parallax scrolling, which works vertically as well as horizontally. A little sluggish perhaps, but it brings a whole new dimension to the game thence '3D' Gottit?).

The three chunks are Unarmed Combat, Pole Fighting (Warsaw this about, then? Ho-ho) and the grand finale... Samurai Sword Fighting. They're all good fun, although you'll be lucky to get a whack in edgeways on the last part.

A Megagame in its time, and it still looks triffic today.

Avenger:
Billed as WOTT II (or Wotty), it's really nothing like the first part. But its still darned good.

Gauntlet is what first springs to mind. Same overhead view same maze, same scrolling, but otherwise totally different. Continuing the beat 'em up theme, in order to dispatch the various nasties that come your way, you can punch and kick in the traditional manner or, if things get desperate, let loose with the shuriken. There are loadsa objects to pick up too, so you won't get bored.

Once again, graphics are First class (yuk, I hate that programme...) with nice smooth scrolling and there are plenty of sound FX and tunes.

Once again, a Megagame originally, and it holds onto its title on the curtain call.

Bruce Lee:
If you thought Fist was going back a bit, how about this? I'm amazed the British Museum let Star Games have the master copy back!

Brucie got mixed reactions when he was let loose on our screens, oooh... must be three years ago now and I still feel that way now. On the one hand, it's great fun dashing around the wizard's fortress collecting lanterns for a while, but as I remember, this was the only game I managed to beat eight times in a row without losing a life. It really is incredibly easy once you get to know the routine. And there aren't that many rooms to explore, so that doesn't take long.

The graphics look pretty disgusting as well. They're primatively drawn, and exceedingly repetitive.

Uchi Mata:
Ooch! This one looks a bit rough round the edges. It also has the honour of being the only judo simulation I've ever come across.

Actually underneath all the tatty presentation, odd-looking, flickery sprites and utter, utter lack of sound there's quite a strategic little number lurking in there. The idea is to execute as many judo throws as you can, as well as possible and so pick up points. These moves are quite nicely animated, but the blokes flicker so much it's easy to lose track of them at times. Uchi Mata, incidentally, is another name for the pervy-sounding Inner Thigh Throw.

Uchi takes a while to get into, but could be quite fun once you get the hang of it. I think most people are likely to be put off by the sordid presentation before they get that far though. We gave it seven initially.

Samurai Trilogy:
This is another Gremliny three-part ninja jobby, but not really in the same league as WOTT.

There are some very nicely done title screens, with a whopping great character set and a good tune, but after this things go sadly downhill. While the backgrounds are well- drawn the sprites themselves look decidedly limp-wristed, and animation is poor. As a result, the game isn't really terribly playable, and the three sections - Karate, Kendo and Samurai - don't contain enough variation to make the thing worthwhile. The training element, where you can choose three areas of ability to improve, doesn't help a lot either.

Samurai Trilogy originally netted a seven.

So there we have it. A mixed bag, as the weather man would say. A couple of goodies, a few averagies and two or three that aren't really worth the bother.

It goes without saying that you'd have to be a pretty determined chop 'n'slasher to be interested, but then again I think that covers most of us. But I do have a couple of little queries (quiet at the back!) why's it so pricey, and why fill two tapes with largely identical games?

Still, it does come in a nice big cardboard box, and being available on disk will make it very attractive to certain sections of society. If you haven't already got the gooduns, I'd give it a go if I were you.

COLLECTABLE CONSUMABLES

One of the most popular complaints in LM's forum has always been the price of software, and it's often been used as justification for pirating software. People falling into this reprehensible habit should now make a New Year's resolution to stop because the excuse is utterly pathetic nowadays. Virtually all the big games, and many of the lesser ones, now seem to be automatically rereleased either on budget, or in a compilation. 'Wait and ye shall receive' seems to be the motto for anyone wary of splashing out £10 on a single piece of software.

While compilations are around most of the year, Christmas and the New Year naturally draws the biggest releases with software houses showing off their 'greatest hits' - often with other companies' games to pad out a package. This practise is clearly vital to Gremlin who have no less than five anthologies coming out.

GREEDY GREMLIN

Perhaps due to the number of releases, Gremlin's titles show a distinct lack of imagination. 10 Great Games 3 is obviously the third in a ten game compilation series, but if the title doesn't set the blood racing some of the games should. From Hewson there's two written by Steve Turner; the acclaimed 1985 graphic adventure Dragontorc and the more recent Gauntlet-clone, Ranarama. Also from Hewson is Steve Crow's Firelord, a slightly more conventional arcade adventure.

Somewhat more surprising inclusions than those from Hewson, for whom Gremlin are now distributors, are two Spanish games. These are the boxing simulation, Rocco by Dinamic, and a 1987 US Gold game, Survivors.

Making up the rest of the tape are the classic flight sim from Digital Integration - Fighter Pilot, Leader Board,Impossaball and the disappointing 10th Frame. While most of the big games here are rather old, if you haven't already got them this is pretty good value. Imaginative Gremlin title number two is Ten Mega Games which is a little more up to date with releases such as the flawed beat-'em-up Hercules and the well received Blood Brothers. The top two games are probably Northstar and Cybernoid, but Deflektor is an intriguing puzzle game well worth a look.

Strangely, both Cybernoid and Northstar are also featured on Gremlin's Space Ace collection. The five other five games include the excellent Exolon, Dominic Robinson's horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up Zynaps and the third MASK game - Venom Strikes Back. While fairly expensive, and with some rather mediocre games as padding, the good games more than make up for this.

Another theme-based collection is Gremlin's Flight Ace. Also around the £15 mark this has just six games, most of which are quite long in the tooth. The only fairly recent game is the outstanding ATF which, with the helicopter sim Tomahawk, make this fairly respectable. Somewhat more dubious in value is the third in the 'Ace' theme trilogy - Karate Ace. This has the classic, clone-inspiring Way Of The Exploding Fist, the excellent two-player Bruce Lee and the epic Way Of The Tiger, but these are all quite old. Much of the rest of the games are not much more recent, and generally of distinctly inferior quality. Uchi Mata is truly awful for example. Unless you're a die-hard beat-'em-up fan, it's probably not worth the £12.95 asking price.

THE MIDAS TOUCH

US Gold may have just two compilations out, but one of them is the massive History in The Making, which at £24.95 is probably one of the most expensive Spectrum releases for ages. With 15 games the price-per-game is fairly reasonable, though, and the packaging with four tapes and a booklet is impressive. Unfortunately the games as a whole are weak. CRASH Smashes like the ancient Beach Head, Raid Over Moscow and the more recent Gauntlet fail to compensate for the mediocrity of the rest. This is an admirably wide-ranging history, but £24.95 seems a lot for the eight or so fairly good games - especially when most are now on budget.

Also from US Gold is the boastfully named Giants collection. Although all of the games are fairly recent releases, you only get five for just under 13 quid (tape version), while +3 owners have to fork out an extortionate 20 quid! Moreover the five are, under closer examination, a little dwarfish with only 720° and Out Run of much interest.

A TOUCH OF CLASS

Fists 'N' Throttles is the tantalizing title for a potpourri Olive popular programs from Elite. You can bounce down the courses in Buggy Boy or perform dramatic motorbike leaps in Enduro Racer. Those feline cartoon stars, the Thundercats, also make an appearance. If you haven't got any of the games included then Fists 'N' Throttles represents good value for money. Unfortunately, if you live in Germany, you won't get Ikari Warriors, as it was banned by the West German government (yet German instructions for the game are included in the package!).

Not to be outdone by their competitors, Ocean and imagine have some sumptuous compilations of their own. The sequel Game Set And Match 2 includes nine games ranging from a relaxing game of cricket in Ian Botham's Test Match to the bone-breaking grid iron action of American Football in Superbowl. Jon Ritman's fantabulous footy sim, Match Day II is also included along with the conversion of Sega's Super Hang-On. Burdened with some old and rather weak titles to fill it out this is still well worth considering.

Two sets of coin-op hits are being issued by Imagine. The first, Konami Arcade Collection, has been available for a few months now, and encompasses ten hits of yesteryear, numbering no less than four CRASH Smashes among them. At £9.95 it offers attractive value for money.

Also from Imagine comes a slightly newer selection of games, all Taito coin-op conversions. Taito Coin-op Hits contains eight such games, of which two - Flying Shark and Bubble Bobble - are fairly recent, highly-acclaimed Firebird releases. Breakout fans will be tempted by the inclusion of Arkanoid and its sequel, Revenge Of Doh, while beat-'em-up fans should be excited by Renegade.

The final Ocean release, The in Crowd, contains a real collection of street credible games. Primarily there's the beat-'em-ups Target; Renegade and Barbarian, along with the militarish, but very different, Combat School and Platoon. With Karnov adding a touch of colour, and Gryzor and Predator more jungle action it's well worth the usual Ocean asking price.

Lastly we come to those consistent suppliers of annual anthologies, Beau Jolly, 10 Computer Hits - Volume Five brings together ten middle of the road offerings, with only ...Traz standing out due to it being reviewed in this very issue! But Beau Jolly's pride and joy must be Supreme Challenge, a superb collection of three true mega games (Starglider, Elite and The Sentinel) plus one puzzling (Tetris) and, of course, the obligatory flight sim (Ace 2). At around £2.50 a game it can't be bad - even if you were only getting those three biggies! I dread to see what the documentation will be like: both Starglider and Elite had novellas and very detailed instruction manuals, in an A5 box!

CRASH ISSUE FEATURED IN, AND REVIEW PERCENTAGE GIVEN. N/R DENOTES NOT REVIEWED.

KARATE ACE
£12.99c, £14 99d
Gremlin
Way Of The Exploding Fist 21/92%
BruceLee 16/91%
Kung Fu Master 31/56%
Avenger 36/85%
Samurai Trilogy 45/49%
Uchi Mata 39/36%
Way Of The Tiger 28/93%

Label: Star Games
Author: Various
Price: £12.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Seven martial arts games in one package! How could any average violent lunatic resist? Although many of these titles have appeared on budget labels, it's a fair bet that there will be enough in Gremlin's Star Games Karate Ace package to attract most lovers of kung-fooey.

Melbourne House's Exploding Fist was the original, and in some ways is still the best: classic two-player multi-move action. Uchi Mata from Martech wasn't such an immediate success; it involves too much strategy and too little violence.

Kung Fu Master from US Gold is a coin-op conversion, more of an arcade game than a simulation as you kick your way through a wizard's henchmen. Gremlin's Avenger, too, is a bit arcadey, a sort of cross between Gauntlet and, er, Gauntlet, with four-way scrolling. The sequel, Way of the Tiger, is a bit like Melbourne's Fighting Warrior; a series of encounters on a horizontally-scrolling background.

US Gold's Bruce Lee is a classic platforms-ladders-and-kicking game with dozens of screens and nicely-designed graphics, while the final title, Gremlin's Samurai Trilogy, is a three-part sim in which you have to master Kendo (stick-fighting), Karate, and Samurai (sword-fighting) in order to reach the rank of Warlord.

A nicely-chosen selection, then, with no turkey amongst them, and at a decent price.