Elite
£12.99 cass
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Hmmph. Now that Elite isn't releasing any new games, it seems as if it's decided to re-release as many old ones as possible on various compilations. And here we are - six utterly ancient games in one complete pack. Bargain or what? Personally, I think not.

WONDERBOY

This is actually the best of the bunch. You are Wonderboy and your girlfriend seems to have been kidnapped by an evil king. So off you must go through seven monochrome, multiload, horizontally scrolling landscapes to rescue her, jumping over various deadly nasties, such as snails, and picking up vital life-saving equipment like bananas. But the action doesn't stop there. Oh ho no! Magic eggs can also be collected, giving you special weapons like a gun. And though the scrolling may be a bit jerky there's still a lot of fun left in this old nugget. It's the best game in the pack, and, blow me down with a feather, if it's not on this month's YS Smash Tape too. Blimey!

'89 Rating: 85°

BACK TO THE FUTURE

A total waste of tape. You are Marty McFly and you've been whisked back to 1955 where you need to get your parents to fall in love. You do this by zooming around on your skateboard, playing the guitar a bit and reading a few love poems via lots of icons at the top.

Gripping stuff, eh?

'89 Rating: 30°

QUARTET

Wonder if this is any good? Well, it's not too bad. Then again, it's not too good either. But I suppose... (Get on with it! Ed) You and your chum fly along this horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up. killing baddies and defeating an end-of-level nasty to get a key so that you can get on to one of the next 99 levels. Lots of mega-weapons and bonuses can be picked up throughout, naturellement, to help you on your way.

I suppose in 1986 when this was first released it seemed quite good. But now, boy has it aged. Compared to today's hits, like Forgotten Worlds, it seems jerky, colourless and really rather uninteresting. Sorry, but I didn't really like it. Next...

'89 Rating: 50°

ALIENS

You've seen the film, you've read the book and you've pickled the onion - so now play the game. Or don't as the case may be.

It's got fancy 'first person perspective' graphics - but playability? I was bored before it'd even loaded. You switch control between six crew members who walk around this base on some deserted planet, and you must try to get each person to this chamber where they'll be safe.

Just avoid the alien and that's it! Lumme.

'89 Rating: 40°

THE EIDOLON

This one's pretty weird. The instructions make no sense whatsoever (perhaps because I was reading the French ones), but basically you wander around these 3D caves shooting fireballs at goblins and collecting jewels. Collect them in the right order then you can kill the end-of-level dragon and go on to the next boring level. Groan.

I'd forget this one completely if I were you...

'89 Rating: 35°

GHOSTBUSTERS

Blimey! This one's so old you could fry an egg on it. 1984, I believe. 'Tis quite a simple game. Buy a car, equip it with as many hoovers and toasters as possible (to catch the ghosts), then drive around busting all the ghosts. Once a ghost-infected building has been located, you can drive to it with an overhead view of your car sucking up spookies on the way. Once you're there then it's just a matter of dropping a trap and. with some careful manoeuvring of your gun (parp), catching the blighter.

Continue this, make enough money 'til you can afford to battle old Manshmally himself, and voila. Hmmm. It may be old, but if you can fight your way through the dinosaurs then it's not that bad.

'89 Rating: 60°

Well, there you go. Not really very good, is it? in fact. I'll go as far as to say that it's almost a total disaster. Apart from Wonderboy and Ghostbusters none of the games are really worth having at all. Sorry, but you'd be better flushing your money down the loo than spending it on this.

STORY SO FAR IV
Elite
£12.99

CONTENTS:

QUARTET: Ghastly mockery of an already sad arcade machine. Ugh.

WONDERBOY: Run-of-the-mill horizontally scrolling platform game.

THE EIDOLON: Superb, atmospheric arcade adventure - one of the best.

GHOSTBUSTERS: Average game of the film.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Rubbish game of the film that offers ten minutes of fun.

ALIENS: This is how to do a game of the film - tense, exciting and very addictive!

CONTENTS: Quartet, Wonderboy, The Eidolon, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Aliens
Spectrum/Amstrad/C64 £12.99

Although there are six games on this compilation, three of them - Quartet, Back to the Future and Ghostbusters - are poor and Wonderboy is only average. The Eidolon and Aliens are great, combining atmosphere and playability superbly. The latter two games are already available on budget - it might be better to buy them separately and save some money.