Players Premier
£2.99

Joe Blade is back! Back! BACK! Except he isn't. But he might as well be as Prison Riot is a typical Joe Blade style game. Not that it makes it bad. Not at all, because this natty flipscreen arcade adventure is one heap of fun! Chaos abounds in a security prison where, overnight, the inmates rioted and are now running around with hoods over their faces and causing no end of trouble! The only way to halt the riot, before a complete massacre occurs, is to recapture the seven ringleaders and chuck 'em off the prison roof (don't worry, a helicopter winches them away)!!

While rampaging inmates are dangerous and touching one drains energy, you are armed with a rifle, but ammo is limited so keep an eye out for top-ups. When ammo runs dry, knock off opponents by kicking their heads in! Other top-ups include keys to open security doors and food to replenish energy.

Capturing the ring leaders isn't easy - first you have to find them, one by one, and then correctly solve a puzzle before leading them away.

Graphically it's a bit on the mega side - all the characters are animated well and are dumpy and cartoon-like. Backdrops are varied and well designed so as not to be cluttered. Prison Riot is an excellent arcade adventure and the only hang up is that you have only one life. CRASH t-shirt to the first infinite lives Poke!!

BARGAIN BASEMENT

This month, Bargain Basement is brought to you by YS's two (almost) resident heart-throbs (or so they keep telling us) JONATHAN DAVIES and RICH PELLEY. Hoorah!

Players Premier
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

If there's one thing Players are good at, it's producing flip screen walk about-and-find-things games by the score. And guess what this is. Erm, a flight sim. Only joshing (what a joker I am eh readers?). (Possibly, so you're fired. Ed). It is in fact one of those aforementioned flip screen walk-about-and-find-things jobettes. Looks suspiciously like Joe Blade (1, 2 and 3) dunnit, what with all those cutesy graphics and whatnot? But who cares here's a complete and utter corker if ever I saw one. And what a topical game too, what with all those prison riots and things that have been going on recently. Blimey. Players really are 'with it', aren't they readers?

In the tastelessness stakes, this game ranks just slightly behind the legendary Seal Cull. But only slightly. With the excitement at Strangeways Prison back in the news (with the announcement of the results of the enquiry), Prison Riot couldn't have been launched at a more tactless moment. I love it!

You play a one-man snatch squad sent into a besieged prison, hoping to reach the ringleaders, negotiate with them and rescue the hostages. Rather than relying on fact and diplomacy your orders (get this) are to shoot as many prisoners as you can and kick the others in the head!

As you make your way through the prison, you'll come across ammunition supplies, food to restore your strength, boots which add speed, and, unfortunately, booby traps such as spiked balls which will do you a nasty injury. You also come across hooded prisoners - the ones I like particularly are those on the roof who chuck slates at you.

As you find the rlngleaders you go into letter-shuffling sub-games; the idea is to rearrange the letters on the grid until they read PORRIDGE! If you complete a game you have to lead the prisoner to the edge of the roof, where they are taken off by hydraulic lifts.

As you'll see from the graphics, the game looks and plays amazingly like Joe Blade 2; I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the coding is the same, since the graphics, animation and gameplay are all staggeringly similar. This isn't to say Prison Riot isn't worth getting; on the contrary, it might not be a mighty challenge but it's a good laugh. I look forward to the inevitable sequels, Trafalgar Square Poll Tax Riot and Escape from Kuwait.