Dinamic
£9.99/£14.99

The year is 2003 and one fifth of the world's population is addicted to narcotics of one kind or another, and this in turn has increased the power of drug dealers.

But a solution is at hand. The Narco Police are on a mission to destroy the drug dealers' main base on an island off the coast of Colombia. The Central Processing Laboratory produces the bulk of the drugs so you must battle through to it and plant enough explosives to blow it sky high.

You control three teams of five men, all of which must breach the outer defences and reach the CPL. You start by selecting which weaponry to take (as long as it doesn't exceed the 500lb weight limit) then the entry point for each team. There are loads of subterranean tunnels and it's up to you where the three teams start.

One by one, each team member walks along a tunnel, blasting at the soldiers and security devices that appear almost out of thin air. You view the action from slightly behind the character under your control, scenery graphics moving toward you as he walks into the screen.

At the top of the screen is a display panel that shows (among other things) energy level, a compass, the type of ammunition used and the number of medical kits remaining. Every time a Narco officer is shot all by the enemy, his energy drops. Narco Police wear bullet proof vests but they do have limitations.

The path to the CPL is a long and tortuous one, and it's not helped by the tough and tedious gameplay. The tunnels are identical, so it's very easy to get lost, and the enemy troops on level two pump out the bullets so fast that life after life is lost in quick succession.

I've never really been a great fan of Dinamic's games, they aren't rubbish but lack playability. Narco Police is a very average shoot-'em-up indeed.

MARK [55%]

Narco Police is like Line Of Fire underground, only it isn't that good (and LOF wasn't much cop anyway). The 3D works quite well but you can't tell what's directly in front of you if your man stands in the middle of the screen. Constant firing is needed to stay alive. The game is well presented with a nicely drawn and coloured map at the tunnel area and a good menu screen. It's a shame that the rest's not too hot. During play you have to use the computer screen at the side of the play area to enter commands like KIT, which patches up some of your wounds. But if you stop to enter a command some enemy appears and shows you his weapon (oo-er!). Narco Police is not much fun and it's not your average blasting game; it needs a bit more thought.
NICK [63%]

Dinamic
£9.95 cass/£14.95 disk
Reviewer: Linda Barker

How come I get all the foreign games? First North & South last month, and now The Light Corridor and this! it must be my half-Italian good looks, or maybe the fact I can speak 36 languages (all at once). Ich bin ein Bauer, weil ich Gumm-istiefel habe. (That's German for "I am a farmer because I have a pair of wellington boots". Posh, eh?)

Anyway Narco Police. Mmm. Sounds a bit like NARC to me. Let's see. It's the year 2003 and a fifth of the world's population are drug addicts. This makes the drug dealers very, very rich indeed, not to mention very, very powerful. To remedy this situation each country has donated 2 of their top policemen to form a new narcotics squad - the Narco Police.

It's not many cops per capita, you've got to admit (in Britain it'd mean 12 million druggies with only 2 cops to deal with them!) but these boys are rock-'ard pros and no mistake. They know where they're going - a 'drugs factory' called the Narco Processing Centre on a island near Colombia - and they're going to kick a lot of bottom when they get there. So it's time to pack the Marmite and off we go!

THE TASTE OF PARADISE

On the surface the island looks much like any other tropical paradise, but don't be deceived! Beneath the lush greenery is a network of high security tunnels which lead to the Central Processing Lab. Three units of Narco Police are flown onto the island and you are in constant communication with them via the Personal Intercom Unit. The aim of the game is to get at least one of your men to the lab, plant a bomb or 2 and then scarper as the whole caboodle goes up with a might bang, crash, wallop. You do this with a mixture of strategy tactics (switching control of units, launching missiles, sending in support troops etc) and shoot-'em-up skills (shooting all the 'orrible nasties who try to stop your men running through the tunnels).

This is sort of split-personality gameplay is reflected in the layout of the screen. On the right is your Personal Intercom Unit (this is where you work out the strategy bit) and on the left is the little chap you're controlling. He moves forwards, or sideways, and you follow him from behind (and he's dead impressive!).

TUMBLING TERRORS

And it's a right old palaver when you get down into the tunnels! You don't get faced with your usual baddies, ho no - these guys are circus extras, tumbling down from the roof and somersaulting at you the whole time! They take some zapping, I can tell you (though they do act to a set pattern).

Once you've finished with them you get to blow up a tank, then it's on to deactivating the terminals. Sounds easy written like that but it's a real maze down there with plenty of really mean (and I mean really, really mean) meanies to get through - and as you progress so they get more 'special'. Now, when something's called 'special' there's always a reason. 'What's he like?" "Oh, he's kinda special, he's got a portable rocket-launcher," Hmm. Then all you've got to do is find your way to the Central Processing Lab. Ha-ha.

Remember you've got 3 units, so you can try and move them all towards the lab bit by bit. Or you can try and do it with just one, and keep sending support troops when you run out of men

TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE SPRITE, NOW IT'S TIME TO SAY GOODNIGHT!

Narco Police, despite sounding a bit like NARC and having a similar scenario, is a bit of alright. I don't really go a bundle on shoot-'em-ups normally but I like this because of the strategy element, and it's that little bit extra that makes it that little bit special!

Dinamic have really done themselves proud with the Speccy version too (it's certainly better than the Amstrad). Despite being in monochrome the little sprites are crystal clear and there's no confusion over where you're going. When the little chap fires away with his gun he's sort of pushed back by the force of the shot, and when he moves he could almost be dancing - it's all really smooth. In fact the whole thing looks absolutely spiffing, and it plays pretty well too. If shoot-'em-ups with brains are where you're at then this could just be right up your street.

REPLAY

Re-pla, vt To play again. n

That section in YS which covers re-released games. (We just thought you'd like to know.)

GBH
£3.99
0742 753423
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

Perhaps I'm just a dribbling old fool, but I can't for the life of me fathom why this was such a hit on its first YS outing. It's a Xybots-style 3D shoot-'em-up where you've got to rush about spraying gunfire around and looking tough. There's also a strategy (eek!) side to it - you've got a whole bunch of soldiers to deploy as you see fit, and a sort of computer terminal thingy which you can type commands into. (Tip: Symbol Shift helps here, something the instructions might have mentioned.)

I think Linda must have been exploring the use of sarcasm when, in her original review, she described the graphics as "really smooth." The graphics are most certainly not smooth. Anything but, in fact. There's no sound, either, except for a very quiet 'chuff' noise when you fire. Hardly an inspiring playing environment, then, and one which almost prevented me from unearthing the okayish game that's lurking underneath, (There is one. Sort of.)

Label: GBH
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Marc Richards

The future, eh? Doesn't look too promising, does it? I mean, according to Terminator 2 we're going to have a nuclear holocaust in the early 2000s, The Lawnmower Man reckons virtual reality will take over the world, allowing people to control each other's minds and Star Trek suggests the universe will be full of mindless Klingons. (Uggh. Where's the toilet paper?)

Well, whatever hopes I had left for a bright and happy future have just flown suicidally out of the window after stepping just eleven years forwards into the time of Narco Police. The year is 2003 and it saddens me to learn that one fifth of the world's population are now drug-addicts, meaning that drug dealers are taking over our sweet little planet. How depressing!

You are a top member of the Narco Police - an antidrug corps - and have to penetrate the drug barons' fortress, the Narco Processing Centre, located somewhere on a Colombian island (where else, eh?). You'll be slightly relieved to know that three squadrons of NP agents will accompany you though. Choose your weaponry and your three different starting points on the island (one for each group of men) and get firing!

The island base consists of a network of underground tunnels, which you'll have to negotiate if you're going to get into the heart of the fortress. You can change between the three teams of soldiers at any time using your Personal Intercom Unit, which also allows you to carry out many other useful commands. On your travels through the maze, guards will crop up everywhere, as well as the odd tank, so put your armoury to good use and get blasting!

Although it might sound a good little number, I found Narco Police very boring. The graphics are monochrome and poorly defined, scrolling is jerky and the game is virtually silent, save a few weedy gunshot noises. Although the guards are easy to dispatch on their own, you have no chance against a batch often, whom I often discovered lurking around corners, and you quickly tire of being endlessly slaughtered in the same old way. Maybe I'm just useless, but Narco Police was just too difficult and very boring.

GARTH:
Narco Police can only be described as a strategic shoot 'em up - two completely different genres that shouldn't be mixed - which makes for a very monotonous game. In fact it's so yawn-inducing it actually makes Eldorado look good. (Now that's saying something).