King kong returns with machine gun!

Producer: Imagine
Out of Pocket: £7.95 cass, £14.95 disk
Author: Sentient

Licensed from the Shin Nihon Kikaku Corp for SNK for short) (and I can see why - Ed) this is the third in the than Warriors trilogy. After the futuristic combat of the still unconverted Victory Road (also to be produced by Imagine) this game takes place in the present day. The location is a tropical island where the people are oppressed by an evil tyrant (and no, it isn't the UK). Aiming to liberate the country is a battle-hardened mercenary (plus friend in two player mode).

Of course, no sooner than you land on the island's beaches than a horde of government troops open fire. Moving surprisingly spritely for someone with 50 grenades in their back pocket, plus an infinite supply of bullets, you return fire. Be careful not to hit hostages though, that loses you 500 points, while walking over them earns 1000 points. Also to be watched out for are the various glowing special weapons, which can be collected, and tanks. Carelessly left with the key still in the ignition these can be commandeered for a while, but watch out for mines!

At the end of each of the five levels there's a special baddie, requiring appropriate tactics, to dispose of. Simply getting to the first of these is no easy task. Enemy troops are both numerous and heavily armed. Given this difficulty of play, unexciting presentation and unoriginal gameplay this is a distinctly average release.

MARK [58%]

THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Cheetah 125 Special, Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: wobbly sprites waddle around a distinctly blocky, play area
Sound: two decent 128K title tunes and adequate in-game explosive effects
Options: one or two players. Rotate or normal controls

Ikari Warriors wasn't too bad a game concept, so an improved sequel had to be good news, hadn't it? Well, sound's good, with nice explosions and some tuneful 128K music, but the graphics are poor, with a dull, monochromatic playing area. The real problem, though, is the dubious collision detection and the way you can get trapped behind a fence - forcing you to restart game. This is still a fairly playable game, but could have been much better.
PHIL [63%]

The only baddies this game tempts me to lob a grenade at are the programmers. The green blocks that break up the monochrome play area look silly, the sound is only adequate and the toughness is infuriating. Avoid.
NICK [42%]

Imagine
£8.95 cass/£14.95 disk
Reviewer: Sean Kelly

In the jungles of a tropical island, the people groan beneath the iron rule of a cruel opressor, (groon, groan). The A team have had to shy off because of a flat tyre, but help's at hand 'cos there's two crack marines waiting on the beach to liberate the natives. You are of course, one of these marines, so, go get 'em boy!

Unfortunately, you're going to have to battle your way through five different sections before you can liberate the island, and progress is tough, hindered as you are, by loads 'n loads of obstacles. Firstly you've got to fight your way past the regular soldiers, who charge at you in groups of twos and threes, making killing them extremely difficult. You'll find soldiers dug in behind sand bags too. Watch out for them 'cos they'll pass the time by shooting at you, or chucking hand-grenades in your direction, rapidly turning you into diced marine. Lovely.

It's a bit more than just a shoot 'em up though, 'cos sometimes the soldiers will be leading a hostage. Taking out all the soldiers, but leaving the hostage, will result in a large bonus. Have too itchy a trigger finger though, and you'll lose five hundred points. So watch out for those hostages.

The soldiers you kill will sometimes leave a weapon behind. Collect it and it'll dramatically increase your fire power, until you get killed, that is. And should more ammo be needed, just pick up an energy bottle or more magazines from the hidden ammo supply.

Getting past that lot'll be tough, and you'll still need to tackle the standard end-of-section meanie. This'll need a massive 32 hits before it'll die, and on each level, you'll need differing tactics to score those hits, so getting through any level is not going to be easy.

Guerilla War is as good a conversion as could be expected on the Spectrum. The graphics are smaller than the arcade version obviously, but are still a fair size, and are well animated. It's also extremely addictive, and will keep most players coming back for more.

But there's one gripe, Guerilla War misses the megamark because of the awkward control method. You need both hands to play, one for the joystick, and another for the keyboard to launch grenades. It's awkward and annoying. Niggles aside, however, this is an addictive little game, and with five levels to work through, will fill many a cold winter evening.

Label: Imagine
Author: Sentient
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Guerilla War is a Yee Haa blam blam blam sort of game. Loads of blasting, loads of bullets hurtling all over the place, bazookas to pick up, tanks to do damage with, no social message whatsoever basically. This is probably good but I'm not sure that Guerilla War actually gives you anything that, say, Commando doesn't. It certainly isn't rubbish but original nooooooooo.

The plot - vertically scroll your way up a tropical island, avoid booby traps and zillions of enemy troops and get your two brave marines to blast your way to victory. There are five levels, and the specific objective is to destroy the stronghold at the end of the final level. Each level features a different enemy pattern and a different end of level obstacle.

It isn't just blasting (quite), there is a certain element of strategy that arises from the fact that, to begin with your grenade count is severely limited so you'd better be careful where you use them.

Totalling some enemy soldiers will reveal a bonus weapon, bazooka or flamethrower. If you actually succeed in rescuing a hostage then aside from a general feeling of well being and achievement you'll get all your bullets and firepower restored to maximum. Conversely killing a hostage is bad, and you'll get penalised 500 points which in my case means minus figures.

Now none of this sounds particularly original -this is because it isn't but an overly familiar gameplay can sometimes be redeemed by totally wicked programming and graphics. Oh dear...

Guerilla War is programmed by Sentient Software for whom I've had a lot of respect in the past but this is pretty dire. The scrolling gives new meaning to the word 'jerkyness' and the graphics are so badly animated, and so clumsily drawn that it is almost impossible to see what it going on to begin with - it was only on about the fifth play I even realised that I had picked up a bazooka.

The problems of attributes also create anothe big minus. Half the time you die for the simple reason that you can't see the enemy who have merged into the background - the generous might call this camouflage - me I'd call it colour clash.

There is inevitably, a tank you can get into which trundles you through large areas of jungle in a hurry but, again, it looks pretty lame. The two player version is better but that's only because two player versions of this sort of game are always better - all that buddy buddy stuff. I ended up shooting quite a few hostages merely because I couldn't tell which was which, actually some of the time it was difficult to tell which was hostage and which was landscape feature...

Sound is entirely average, graphics are poor, gameplay is utterly the same as at least four or five other games and the best that you can say is that it is sort of like the Coin Op but so what. There are better games which are very similar to this already out there, some of them are on budget. This should be too.

Imagine's armed resistance.

Liberating an entire nation with just two marines is a pretty tall order. Even if they are equipped with all the guns, grenades, bazookas, flamethrowers and tanks available, it's still going to be a battle against the odds - the enemy forces are well-equipped and are often found well-dug-in.

Play is very much in the Ikari Warriors and Leathernecks death-dealing mould, with lots of vertical scrolling and hammering away at enemies coming on from the top and sides of the screen. The simultaneous two-player option (where you can't shoot one another) leads to faster progress in the mission, but the need for co-operation brings its own problems.

Fighting through the five levels you encounter riflemen, troops throwing grenades, tanks, men with flamethowers and bazookas and then a large enemy at the end of each stage that takes multiple hits to destroy.

Bazookas and flamethrowers dropped by dead soldiers, can be collected and used, and it is possible to clamber into abandoned tanks and drive around. Tanks have excellent firepower, and make blasting through walls, fences and sandbags much easier.

There's nothing here we haven't seen in previous Commando derivatives, but the elements are combined to make a tough game. Plenty of action for jungle-hungry combat veterans to fight their way through.

Reviewer: Bob Wade

RELEASE BOX
C64/128, £9.95cs, £14.95dk, Imminent
Spectrum, £8.95cs, £9.95dk, Out Now
Atari ST, £19.95dk, Imminent
Amiga, £19.95dk, Imminent
Amstrad, £9.95cs, £14.95dk, Imminent
IBM PC, No Plans

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 78/100
1 hour: 85/100
1 day: 80/100
1 week: 60/100
1 month: 30/100
1 year: 10/100

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £8.95, Diskette: £14.95
Amstrad CPC Cassette: £9.95, Diskette: £14.95

APE A GUERILLA

Cruel oppressors are ten-a-penny in South American settings common to most militarised vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-ups. In Guerilla War the dictator is one who just won't say no to total domination. A coup d'etat or peaceful settlement of the situation is out of the question. It's time to send in two men from the toughest group of fighters around - the Marines!

Following a beach landing at the start of the first level, the marines fight their way up-screen, wasting all who dare to approach. Infantry and tanks pose military problems while barbed wire, fences and other obstacles physically hinder progress. Using grenades on the defences is most effective, and killing troops reveals bazookas or flame-throwers to pick up.

POLE POSITION

Just for sheer sadistic pleasure and to make sure you don't fire indiscriminately, the enemy have tied hostages to poles and placed them in your line of fire. Freeing prisoners replenishes your ammunition supplies - shooting them loses you points, so keep your trigger-finger still whenever they're near.

In true Ikari Warriors style, tanks are carelessly left lying around for your Marines to board and use. Unfortunately they are susceptible to mines, grenades and running out of fuel - if you're inside when one goes up, you go up as well.

After successfully negotiating bridges, villages and military defences, you reach the end of each of five levels where a mega-opponent awaits. Several well-placed grenades, bazooka or flame-thrower rounds should vanquish the enemy and reward you with the next level. On the last level the dictator is the threat standing between you and victory. But then no-one said life as a Guerilla was easy.