Producer: US Gold/Namco
Retail Price: £8.99

You are in a race against time across a chequerboard floor... and hazards like potholes, hurdles, tumbling crates, Coke cans and rats get in your way and can cause you to stagger, tall and lose time. Land on a green square, and you're all but brought to a halt.

But you can gain extra energy by jumping accurately onto springboards, landing on skateboards or kicking green cans, and hurry toward completing one of the 24 levels before time runs out.

Points are scored for every three squares moved in this conversion of the famous Namco arcade original, for swapping skateboards and for passing beneath a bridge at the end of a stage. Kicking blue cans also earns you points, and jumping on them stops the timer for two seconds.

Ready, steady, go...

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable, four directions and jump required
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Cursor
Use of colour: yellow floor, blue walls monochrome effect
Graphics: neatly defined and effective animation over smooth scrolling floor
Sound: simple'knocked-over' and jumping FX
Skill levels: one
Screens: 24 levels

Metrocross is one of those games which is easy to play and understand but gets increasingly difficult as you progress further - and, believe me, it does get difficult avoiding such obstacles as barrels, hurdles, and my favourites, the rats. Sound is nonexistent apart from the odd beep as you jump obstacles, but the graphics are pretty good. My only niggle is that on the inlay it speaks of green and blue cans - how on earth do you tell which is which on a monochromatic screen? Apart from that Metrocross is enjoyable to play, though interest may wane as you learn the patterns of obstacles - but even then you can race against the clock.
MARK

The first six levels of Metrocross present no challenge whatsoever, and than the next level appears to be completely impossible. The graphics are reasonable, though I wondered why the cars, specified on the title screen as being green and blue and all that, were in fact the same colour! No, Metrocross costs far too much, and no-one could say they really found it addictive. It's good for a few plays, though.
MIKE

As coin-op conversions go this is a real winner, with all the thrills and spills of the original arcade machine - and you don't have to keep feeding it with 10p pieces! The only difference is the sound. The graphics are pleasant to look at, monochromatic with just the walls at the top of the screen changing colour - my only grudge is that there's a colour clash when you go near the wail. Metrocross is packed full of playability, and you'll soon be addicted, though it's a little overpriced.
NICK

OLDIES UNLIMITED

This month see the inimitable PHIL KING scouring through the CRASH back issues for that crucial information on all the rereleases between now and mid-November. Take it away Phil...

Metrocross
Producer: Kixx
Out of Pocket: £2.99
Original Rating: 77%

Converted by US Gold from a 1982 Namco coin-op, the Spectrum version of Metrocross was originally released in July 1987.

This futuristic game involves roller-skating down a scrolling track shown in isometric 3-D. This chequered track has not been kept in the best of shape, however, and some of the squares slow the skater down. Yet more obstacles to a relaxing skate are numerous hurdles and fast-rolling barrels. Although collision with these obstacles doesn't harm the hero it eats up the valuable time allowed to complete each level.

With the track in such a poor state of repair it's a good job there are some useful items to be collected along the way. These include two kinds of can: one type speeds the skater up, the other gives bonus points when kicked. Even more helpful are springboards for extra large leaps and a skateboard which allows the hero to zoom down the track.

In play the first few levels are far too easy, which is probably more the fault of the coin-op than conversion itself and at least its does get harder as the game goes on. The actual programming is admirable, with attractively shaded graphics which cleverly avoid colour clash by splitting the screen horizontally. Playability also ranks high, and the game was probably originally slightly underrated. It's certainly well worth a look at the new low price, especially if you're a fan of the ageing coin-op.

US Gold
£8.99

This is an interesting game! It's taken from the arcade game of the same name, which I had great fun with earlier this year. The main idea is to run through several screens against the clock, which may sound easy, but believe me, guv, it isn't. For one thing, there's almost no possible way to miss all the obstacles, as these take up more of each screen than the track. There are black squares to slow you down, hurdles to dodge or jump, gigantic coke cans that roll towards you, and various dodgy squares - if you stand on these they either open up and swallow you or spring up, catapulting you into the air. And there are the rats! These pesky rodents speed towards you, latch onto you and slow you down. The only way to shake them off is to jump, or move from left to right rapidly.

Of course, you're not stuck out there with no help at all. You have no gun, or indeed weapon of any kind, but there are various helpful items scattered about the place for you to use. These include small coke cans which give you weird powers if you jump on them, or extra points it you just kick them. If you jump on the blue ones the time stops for two seconds, while the green cans double your speed. However, all you Speccy players can disregard this totally useless piece of information, 'cos all the cans in the Speccy version are drawn in black and white, so it's a case of pot luck as to what you'll get when you jump on them.

Other helpful things are the springboard and the skateboard. The springboard does exactly what it says - catapults you further into the screen, while the skateboard lets you skate through black squares without losing speed. One warning, though - after hitting any nasties you lose all your extra powers, and don't jump on a skateboard, or you'll lose that as well.

The graphics are well animated, especially when your little man is beetling along on his skateboard. One major gripe, though is that after the end of the game, the hi score and command screens pass in the blink of an eye, so you can't see how well you did, and you can't change any of the functions. The game seems hard, but after a couple of goes you'll get into it, I promise. It looks like US Gold has realised just what you can do with a Speccy and is putting the knowledge to really good use!

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Cheaper than a speeding bullet. Leaps small molehills at a single bound! Is it a bird? Is it a Wankel rotary engine? No, it's 'budget king' Marcus Berkmann with the latest in budget software.

Kixx
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Metrocross is another of US Gold's sterling conversions. And this one's a real ripper, better to my mind than even Gauntlet or Uridium (both of which, to some extent, have been superseded).

This is a superbly addictive game, in which you race or, roller skates along a series of courses coping with all manner of nasty hazards. Yes, yes, I know, everyone's done a version of this - everyone always does - but this one's the business, with gameplay, graphics and speed all beyond compare. It's all against the clock, so you have to move a bit sharpish, but this one is one of those excellent pieces of software that's easy to get into and devilishly hard to suss out completely - the ideal balance, to my mind. It's rare that we give a re-release a nine, but this one's a cert, John.

Label: US Gold
Author: In-house
Price: £8.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

I tried very hard indeed to like Metrocross. In theory it sounds like a cracking effort and the shots (of the arcade version) on the back of the box promise all manner of wonderful excitement - don't they always?

Licenced from the Namco arcade game of the same name, Metrocross involves racing along from the left-hand part of the play area to the right in a style not entirely a million miles away from the ill-fated inspector Gadget (see last ish) while avoiding assorted obstacles such as potholes and pressure pads.

Everything (apart from the back wall, which doesn't count anyway, as it has no purpose) is black and white, which makes reading the instructions a little confusing eg: Blue cans - kick them and you score points/ Green Cans - Speed cans which double your speed.

Each of the twenty-four levels has a time limit which, when exceeded, will cause your fairly poorly defined character to be electrocuted on the spot. Each level also offers a different arrangement of obstacles, although there are relatively few types of obstacle. There's the "green tile" (which is in fact black) which will slow you down by 75% and the hurdle which you must leap. There are also numerous rats which scurry about and will gnaw away at your ankles if you don't kick them away. At sporadic intervals along the course you'll encounter "blue cans" (white) which can be kicked off the screen for bonus points.

There's a skateboard, too, which while offering moderate novelty interest as you glide over the ground, arms waving oddly at your sides, doesn't do a whole of the game in the last interesting stakes.

The main problem with Metrocross is that it just isn't particularly exciting. It's far too easy in the early stages (no-one should be able to score upwards of 50,000 in their first game on anything) and by the time it actually gets difficult to complete a level, you'll have been playing it for so long that it will be quite a relief to be able to stop for a while.