Producer: Ocean
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Dusko Dimitrijevic

Evil has swamped the Phantom Club, and all the members bar one have succumbed to the dreadful overlord Zarg. Plutus is the sole member of this exclusive group who is still a good boy - and to defeat the repulsive Zarg, Plutus must work his way up through the ranks of the Phantom Club, exploring the club's huge headquarters to build up his power.

But as Plutus roams through the 550-odd rooms, his former friends will use their powers to be as mischievous as possible. Some have taken the forms of monks, others are man spiders, and Plutus may need to spend several shots on them.

And the members of the Phantom Club are not the only hazards: some inanimate objects also drain our champion's energy, and to avoid them Plutus must use his athletic ability to the full.

A psychic bolt from Plutus's forehead will devastate anyone or anything that gets in his way. But it too uses energy.

Some rooms contain screens which tell you how to escape and get to the next level. Most of these require Plutus to shoot a particular object or character, such as Psi- Man, who has the power to block room exits. Psi-Man's power can only be overcome by destroying his astral projection, which takes the form of a bird.

Useful features can be acquired by touching the floating sphere (an extra life), the floating diamond (extra speed) and the spinning sphere (a large bonus score).

Yugoslavian programmer Dusko Dimitrijevic first came to fame with Imagine's M.O.V.I.E. (93% Overall in Issue 26), an arcade adventure set in New York's gangster world and presented in a similar 3-D style to Phantom Club.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: monochromatic forced-perspective 3-D
Sound: spot effects

Games like this have been coming off the production lines for three years, ever since Knight Lore. I'm bored with them. In Phantom Club just the choice of colours is enough to turn your stomach, and as for Plutus, the poor bloke can't do more than one thing at a time (even walking and turning corners simultaneously seems to be too much for him). The difficulties of manoeuvrability, combined with the endless chambers, make Phantom Club an infuriating and lengthy game
BYM [62%]

Phantom Club is just like M.O.V.I.E.. That was the first full-price game I ever bought, but because I couldn't get very far it soon lost its appeal. And the same goes for Phantom Club. The 3-D graphics are confusing because so much detail has been crammed in, and the colour is a bit too bright. The nasties just get in the way without doing anything much apart from making a sword at the bottom of the screen (representing Plutus's strength) a bit shorter. Phantom Club is presented well, but hotels nothing new or exciting
NICK [56%]

Ocean
£7.95
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

You have to be careful which clubs you join these days. Phantom Club is not a club to be recommended in more ways than one. Plutus, our hero, joined up and before he knew it, all the other members - a bunch of superheroes - had fallen under the evil influence of their wicked leader, leaving Plutus to restore order by reaching the rank of Ipsisimus. For good to triumph over evil he has to complete ten perilous missions in the Phantom Club HQ. (Should have joined the Kit-Kat Club Ed).

The game opens to a rather rough rendition of The Antiques Road Show theme tune (Two million pounds? But I only paid 50p for it! Ed) and then you get a touch of deja vu. The highly detailed Filmation-type graphics will remind you of Movie because both games were written by the same chap. The graphics are definitely the strong point and judging by the sheer quantity of different sprites, objects and backgrounds, they must occupy vast amounts of memory.

But your task is pretty awesome, if not tedious. To begin one of the missions you've got to knock up at least 40,000 points by shooting super-heroes and picking up bonuses, but as each baddy only collects 50 points when dead, it might take you 'til Xmas next year. The trouble with Phantom Club is that once you've been everywhere and done everything there isn't much left to tickle your fancy. You can while away the time by filling baddies with psychic bolts or drawing maps (there are over 550 rooms) but the novelty soon wears off.

If you want a lot of chocolate on your biccies, don't join this club.

Label: Imagine
Author: Dusko Dimitrijevic
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Groucho Marx used to say that he wouldn't join any club that would have him as a member. Normally I'd agree, but I would name an exception for the Phantom Club.

This elite brotherhood, you see, consists entirely of superheroes with amazing powers - so I'd feel right at home. Unfortunately, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the overlord Zarg has turned to the ways of evil. Well, what did they expect with a name like Zarg?

As Plutus the Zelator, lowest ranked of the Phantom Club, your task is to defeat Zarg and other corrupted superheroes.

While you might find the isometric graphics style and the 550 chambers reminiscent of many an Ultimate-style arcade adventure. Phantom Club has enough original elements to make it stand out.

For a start, instead of the slow shuffle with which heroes of such games usually get around, Plutus jogs at a respectable pace, and on your pressing the space-bar he executes an impressive forward dive and roll. You'll need this to avoid low walls which block the entrances for some of the chambers, and the nasty spiders which try to bite your ankle.

Your main opponents, though, are the other superheroes, and this is where the game gets really interesting. Each enemy has different powers. PsiMan, for instance, generates a psychological barrier which prevents you from leaving his chamber until you destroy his flying spirit. To do this you spit energy beams from your helmet.

Some enemies are indestructible, and simply have to be avoided until a timer runs its course. Grabbing a floating sphere can win you an extra life, but touching it again depletes your energy. A floating diamond can award you extra speed, while shooting a rotating tube allows you to save the game.

In some rooms you find what looks like a movie screen. Shooting this brings up a text display giving you details of a special mission. However, you'll only be eligible for this mission if you have reached a certain score and rank. Your eventual aim is to reach the rank of Ipsissimus, at which point you can defeat Zarg.

Phantom Club looks very much like Imagine's hit Movie, not surprisingly since it's by the same programmer. In many ways it's more imaginative than Movie, with strange science fictional backgrounds, weird armoured enemies and surprises like man-eating plants which snap at you as you enter a chamber.

However, Phantom Club is pretty hard on the eyes because some of the colour choices are terrible - would you believe white on green, or purple on white? It would have been much easier on the old retinas if it stuck to black backgrounds.

With a choice between rotational or directional control, joysticks or keyboards, Phantom Club is fun to play and fast moving.

It doesn't require too much thinking and planning - you don't, for instance, have to collect objects and work out what they do. The sheer size and speed of the game still makes it one of the most interesting of its type to appear since Movie.

Evil evasion with Ocean.

Philanthropic you may be, but there's no place for it in the Phantom Club, the sequel to the highly original Movie. In the guise of a lowly Zelator (beginner), you must travel through a staggering 550 3D locations ridding the Clubs headquarters of evil, completing tasks and slowly climbing the ladder to Ipsisimus - overlord status with ample power to defeat the nefarious Zarg.

Thankfully, the icon-control system which featured heavily in Movie has disappeared. In fact, almost the whole screen is devoted to the graphically-pleasing artifacts of the Club. You, Plutus, begin with five reincarnations. full energy and Brainstorm (your fire power). The start room, and every location thereafter, is littered with objects - some good, some bad, some purely for decoration. To determine which is which will take considerable time.

Completing missions entails locating and killing a character. When you achieve Ipsisimus (level 10) you get to do battle with Zarg himself. However, a task is only set if you've attained the correct rank and have 40,000 points under your belt.

Points are gained by blasting the bizarre animated objects. When Zarg's minions are shot they don't disappear; some characters freeze, others spin, the really nasty ones mutate.

Phantom Club is going to keep you locked to the screen for a long while. Neat graphics, pleasing introductory music and plenty for the hardened arcade adventurer to explore and blow away

Reviewer: Richard Monteiro

RELEASE BOX
C64/128, £8.95cs, £12.95dk, Jan 88
Spectrum, £7.95cs, Out Now
Ams, £8.95cs, £14.95dk, Jan 88

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 80/100
1 hour: 90/100
1 day: 80/100
1 week: 60/100
1 month: 55/100
1 year: 38/100

Spectrum, £7.95cs
Amstrad, £8.95cs, £14.95dk

Following Movie comes Phantom Club where you've got 550 locations to explore. Gone, though, is the icon-control system as you work your way up from a lowly Zelator to a prestigious Ipsisimus, which is the level you'll need to obtain if you hope to defeat the nefarious Zarg. There's some neat graphics, pleasing intro music and plenty for the hardened arcade adventurer to explore and blow-away.

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £7.95
Amstrad CPC Cassette: £8.95, Diskette: £14.95

MOVIE MISSION

Dusko Dimitrijevic is a name to be reckoned with, if only because it is difficult to pronounce. This young programmer comes from Yugoslavia, and the first major game he wrote, M.O.V.I.E, was a huge hit. That was in March 1986 and we have had to wait awhile for the second, which is a follow up in style but not in theme.

Many years ago, a group of superheroes possessed with strange and deadly powers banded together and formed the Phantom Club. The overlord, Zarg, developed an evil streak, and over the years managed to persuade the other members to practise his nasty ways all except for Plutus. The club split up, and now disapproving Plutus finds himself facing an evil band of warriors, all as powerful as himself. Playing Plutus, it is up to you to defeat the band and destroy Zarg.

You start the game as Zelator, lowest rank of the brotherhood, and aim to rise through the ranks (ten in all) to attain that of Ipsisimus; only then will you be able to defeat Zarg and restore the club's good name. To do this, you must explore the club's many rooms, overcome devious traps and puzzles, and complete the various missions that have been set, while coping with your former colleagues whom Zarg sends after you.

The Phantom Club is instantly recognisable as being from the hands of M.O.V.I.E.'s creator, the design of the isometric perspective rooms inevitably recalling the earlier game. But despite the similarities, Phantom Club is an enjoyable experience because the problems facing the player are wholly new. Pay no attention to your special power of 'Brainstorm' - a bolt of psychic force you shoot from your head - it is just a laser gun in different guise, and has much the same effect on baddies when it hits them, although some need more than one shot; but the use of movie screens (a back reference?) in some rooms which provide essential information on your mission, is a genuinely fine element, and the frantic search to find the one necessary to enable completion of the mission for your next ranking gives the game that 'just one more go' feeling.

That, and the combination of more usual arcade-adventure elements: extra lives can be obtained by touching floating spheres, others provide extra speed, and spinning spheres, when blasted, earn bonus scores. The game provides one mission per ranking, accessed by shooting at a movie screen, if you have not reached the ranking and number of points necessary to undertake a mission you are informed - requires at least 40,000 points to start the first mission for instance, and the aim of the mission...? That is for you to find out.