REPLAY

D'you know what I got for Christmas? Nothing. But you don't care, you're only interested in Replay.

Ocean
£14.99 cass 128K only
061 832 6633
Reviewer: Jonathan Nash

By some quirk of fate, Ocean has given this compilation of fight games a sensible name. Tch. Somebody's head will roll for this, no doubt. I'll tell you what - you could ring up Ocean and ask to speak to their Head of Creative Titling, and I'll just bet they're 'unavailable'. Ho ho, eh? Yes, quite.

PITFIGHTER

The point of this infamous coin-op conversion is dubious in the extreme. Pitfighting is basically illegal boxing for money, and the game strives to be realistic in its portrayal of the violence. (Hence the digitised graphics in the arcade original.) Whenever you hit someone there's a massive splash of blood, and at the end of a round you get 'brutality bonuses' for being particularly violent. Even the excited spectators get in on the act, flailing away at you if you get too close. In a word, ugh. Yet! I don't mind games like, say, Target: Renegade (where you do even more horrible things like bash people up with snooker cues) because of the obviously cartoony graphics and plot. Psychologically revealing, eh?

It doesn't help if you concentrate on the actual gameplay. The graphics change size as you move in and out of the screen area, which looks clever but makes distinguishing the players ve-e-ery tricky. As with so many other games, you're reduced to hitting every key at random because you can't quite see what's going on. The dodgy response times don't help, and neither do the exceptionally aggressive opponents. Basically, you haven't got a chance. Two-player mode improves things a little - you can double-team the baddies - but not enough to make you want to play the game more than twice. Awful.
28%

WWF

Well, Steve rather neatly summed this one up just over there, thus cheating me out of about £25. (But only freelancers get paid by the word. Ed) Rats. I forgot. Ah, how I remember those happy freelancing days. Getting up at midday, writing a review in about an hour then going back to bed. (So not much different from now then. Ed) Ha blimmin' ha. (What's this about Jonathan working only an hour a day? Colin) (But Colin, that was only a - Ed) (Right, we'll replace him. Colin) Help! Linda - do something! (So who were you thinking of replacing him with then? Ed) What? Oh no! Who can possibly save me now? (Fear not, trembly mortal! Super Bracket Man, will protect you. Be off, impertinent publisher! Take that, uncouth editor! Super Bracket Man) (Aarghh... uggghhh... etc. Colin and Linda) (Another job well done. No thanks necessary, little man - your happy face is enough reward. Farewell! Super Bracket Man) (Long pause.) Well, WWF. As I said, Steve's summed it up rather well. All I've got to add is (a) I was even more irritated by the multiload than Mr Laundry, (b) it was written by Dave Box of Pixy the Microdot fame and (c) for me, the game quickly got repetitive because of ALL THAT WAGGLING. Good fun to start with, but no staying power at all.
60%

FINAL FIGHT

Okay, Final Fight's graphics are big. Very big, in fact. But they move with all the grace and fluidity of Mr Bean. In a daring snap of the fingers at physics, characters leap across the screen at you without seeming to pass through the points in between. And when two or more baddies attack at once, the mess of pixels on screen becomes completely impenetrable. You may as well play hiding under the duvet. In fact, I think I'll give that a go right now. (Sounds of someone pulling a duvet over their head.) Right, now I'll hold down fire and hit all the direction keys at random. Come back in a few minutes and see how I got on. (Intermission, with light music.) Oh. hello again. Well, I ploughed through the first three levels without doing anything remotely approaching playing a computer game.

Even the end-of-level baddies with their incredibly long energy bars proved no problem. In fact, the only compliment I can pay Final Fight is that when the hero jumps, his leg grows quite a bit. Oh, and there's a two-player mode, but to be frank I'd rather challenge a friend to a game of Trivial Pursuit. No, that's a lie.
38%

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. When Ocean announced they were pulling out of the Speccy market, at least they went out on a high note with The Addams Family. Returning with this atrocious compilation does nobody any favours. Super Fighter just goes to show what's wrong with licences - the names may be big, but by golly, the games are preposterously bad. And why 128K only? All three games are multiloads. Only WWF offers any kind of gameplay, and even that's not as good as the £4 Tag Team Wrestling. If you received a letter tomorrow, put together using words from old newspapers and saying that it you didn't buy Super Fighter your entire family, including Jacob. your cousin from Compton Dando whom you thought dead but who was in fact living under an assumed name to escape his debtors, would be killed, I'd recommend you buy the compilation. Otherwise, do anything - even detour through the Country Music section - to avoid it. (Hello! I've just the strangest dream. I was asking Colin something and all of a sudden some loony in tights started chucking us around. Then he hit me with some so of memory-dissolving ray, and after that it's just a blank. Ed) No really? How odd.

Label: Ocean
Memory: 128K
Price: £10.99 Tape, £15.99 Disk
Reviewer: Steve Keen

Last Christmas was a pretty spectacular time for Speccy beat em up fans. US Gold launched Final Fight, Domark launched Pit Fighter and Ocean launched the excellent WWF Wrestlemania. Now, in the wake of the Dream Team, Ocean are offering those of a more violent disposition the opportunity to partake in all three head breaking block busters.

Settle down with a good joystick and a competitive friend and prepare for some not so subtle action. Pit Fighter was launched amid much expectation - the coin op had interesting digitised sprites but lacked decent gameplay. Would the computer version suffer the same fate? Well, yes and no.

Pit Fighter involves taking over the body and mind of one of three characters. Ty the kick boxer, whose special moves are the spin kick, the flying kick and the roundhouse; Kato, a third dan karate black belt whose moves are the Combo punch, flip kick and backhand; Buzz the ex pro wrestler whose special moves are the body slam, the headbutt and the piledriver.

Pit Fighter is best played in two player mode. There is some time lapse between command and response but the sprites are big and good looking (if a little more transparent than usual) and the game doesn't suffer too much from the delay. The way the digitisation is emulated means that Pit Fighter is one of the most distinctive looking games ever on Speccy.

The route to fame and fortune in the shady and highly illegal world of pit fighting is torturous. You must defeat seven of the eight street warriors by punching, kicking, wrestling or throwing objects at them before you get to the final challenge, the Ultimate Warrior (not the WWF chap, don't worry).

Not an all time classic beat 'em up but not just a novelty item either. Pit Fighter is possibly better on Speccy than any other format if only because expectations were not as high and more than usual ingenuity was needed to make it look respectable.

What can be said about WWF Wrestlemania that wasn't said last month? Well for all those who didn't catch it in Big Al's review of the Dream Team I'd better go through it in brief.

WWF is the top wrestling simulation so far available for the Spectrum. It combines big names from the World Wrestling Federation with relatively simple moves and lots of playability. You take on the mantle of either Hulk Hogan, The British Bulldog or The Ultimate Warrior (and all their associated registered trade marks, copyrights and general regalia) and attempt to beat the hell out of five other wrestlers from the WWF bad guy camp.

The sprites are well drawn and instantly recognisable and all their moves are superbly animated. Each character has a special murder move and can jump off the ropes, kick, clothesline, shoulder charge and lots of other vicious things. The intro sequence to the game is well happening too and you'd do well to leave it on for a while and impress your friends.

Final Fight was another eagerly awaited coin op conversion, released at the same time as WWF last year. Like Pit Fighter the main concern seems to be accurate reproduction of the sprites and graphics and, true to form, the programmers succeeded admirably in this task.

The basic idea behind the game is that an ex wrestler and street fighting champion Hagar (and believe me, he is horrible) has been made mayor of Metro City, the most doggone crime ridden metropolis on the planet. Presumably the good citizens thought that fire needed to be met with fire, and only a mean, thick, brute who can't get a decent shirt to fit him could control the city's criminal underworld. (Or was that underwear?)

Anyway the criminals are obviously not impressed and have shown their complete disregard for the law by kidnapping Hagar's daughter. Now Hagar aided by Cody and Guy, two all American crime fightin' meat-heads, must rescue her. This is where you come in.

There are six levels of beat 'em up action, all shown beautifully on a map at the beginning of the game. You must fight your way through the subway, restaurant, lavatory, bay and hotel to reach the end and rescue the girlie. The bad guys, and there are many, will only be defeated by a sound thrashing, for which Hagar with his wrestling techniques, Guy with his ninjitsu prowess and Cody with his knife expertise are well suited.

Unfortunately controls is a little confusing and restricting so fighting the bad guys can get frustrating at times, this is where the game falls down a little. The arcade was popular and good fun, though it didn't take long to dispatch your enemies. However the Spectrum version can get tiresome.

This is a good compilation if beating the hell out of things is your forte. The two player mode on Pit Fighter and WWF is fun and challenging and you're unlikely to come across a better collection of excellent graphics.

Note that although Final Fight and Pit Fighter are both 48K and 128K compatible, WWF is 128K only so don't go buying Super Fighters if you only own a 48K machine.

ALAN: Three graphically pretty games. WWF plays and looks good, Pit Fighter comes in second place with big, unusual sprites and average playability. Final Fight was potentially my favourite game but is let down by poor playability. However, the worst part about this compilation is that on tape the games take several centuries to load and must be constantly watched. This is annoying. If you have a +3 then opt for the disk version if you can get your hands on it.