Label: Ocean
Authors: Various
Price: £9.95 cassette / £14.95 disc
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

Live Ammo is the first of two compilations released recently by Ocean. As you may have guessed from the title, it's a collection of all action games.

First off is Green Beret, the horizontally scrolling, stab, burn, fire-missiles-at-and grenade-'em-up arcade classic. Next is Top Gun, a two-player, split-screen vectorised shoot out in F-14s. OK, but not great. Close behind that comes Rambo. A one man battle across the Vietnamese jungle with some great tunes. Then the classic, The Great Escape. Lots of action, struggling to escape from a German POW camp. Finally Dinamic's Army Moves, seven different screens in various modes of transport.

This is easily one of the best compilations I've come across.

Amstrad, £9.95cs, £14.95dk
C64/128, £9.95cs, £14.95dk
Spectrum, £9.95cs

A 'specialist interest' compilation this one - if you like your pixels militaristic and served up with plenty of opportunities for murdering the opposition, then Live Ammo is the compilation for you. Apparently W.H.Smith insisted that the name be changed to Live Action - we reckon it should just be called Sick, Sick, Sick...

Army Moves

We will fight them from the jeep, we will fight them from the air, we will fight them on foot. Such might be the motto of the Secret Operations Corps. You are one of this elite squad with a mission to retrieve a set of plans locked away in the enemy's HQ that lies at the end of seven combat-ridden levels of play. Blast the baddies from the relative comfort of jeep while avoiding hazards in the road, take to the air in a chopper and then fight through the jungle on foot. A difficult game to play - which can lead to frustration or total addiction.

Rambo

A one-mission jaunt into the jungle on the trail of some captured comrades, this offers Commando-style play in a different multi-directional scrolling scenario. Purists may prefer Commando to this clone with Stallone, but there's a fair bit of fun to be had if killing gooks is your bag, including the opportunity to pilot a helicopter laden with your buddies (if you get that far). On the other hand, if killing 'gooks' is your bag, then you probably don't deserve any buddies anyway. A little short on playability, but fun for those with itchy fingers.

Green Beret

Yet again its kill the enemy soldiers and rescue your buddies time, only it's a horizontally-scrolling killing field that you have to traverse. Armed with a knife and iron determination, three levels need to be negotiated before the mission ends, each packed with running, jumping lighting men - and a truckload of soldiers waits for you to arrive at the end of a level. Grenades and flamethrowers can be collected by killing key opponents, but the extra firepower only lasts for a few blasts Highly playable, every bit as much fun as the arcade original.

Top Gun

A particularly good film tie-in - one that doesn't bother trying to mess around with following the plot. This is a one or two player combat flight simulator that seats the combatant in the cockpit of an F14 Tomcat (hence the Top Gun tie-in). Vector graphics, with an abstract row of dots for the horizon, are used to display the view from the driving seat, and head to head combat is what the contest is all about. Excellent fun, even if you aren't a flight simulator fan. Even more fun when you play with a friend.

The Great Escape

Yet another classic title from the Denton Designs team, as much of a movie as a game - it's well worth just watching the action for a while before starting to play. Life marches on in the POW camp, whether you try to escape or not. Prisoners and guards go about their daily routine, seemingly oblivious of your intentions. Formulate a plan, gather up the equipment and try to make good an escape Fail, or be caught out of bounds by the guards and it's a spell in the cooler... A challenging arcade adventure with a novel presentation. Some killing, but not a lot. which just goes to prove that you don't need bloodshed to borrow your thrills from military conflict...

Verdict: Four out-and-out combat games rounded off by a spell as a POW. Shooting to kill is the main theme, although there's some opportunity to use the Grey Matter to advantage.