Producer: US Gold
Retail Price: £8.99 cassette, £12.99 disk
Author: Software Creations from the Jaleco Pigs And Bombers coin-op

The crowds are cheering, the players walk out on to the screen, the whistle goes and, amidst squeals of snuffling excitement, the porkiest match of the season is about to begin!

The basic rules of this porcine game are taken from the coin-op, Pigs and Bombers, yet to be released in the arcades. One or two players join a group of intrepid piglets on a playing area marked out by a series of numbered, black time bombs. When the referee blows his whistle, all the pigs attempt to pick up the bombs and throw them at each other. Once dispatched, a bomb begins its countdown to explosion. Any pigs in the immediate vicinity of the blast die a sudden, untimely death. (Unlike their opponents, players have four chances to survive a fatal blast.) Particularly accurate or amorous pigs are in with an advantage. A direct hit kills an opponent immediately: stealing up on unsuspecting piglets to give them a kiss embarrasses them into a useful fit of momentary disorientation.

Different pigs react differently to being kissed or attacked. Before play commences the program gives a run-down of your opponents, including their name and characteristics. Metal pigs are particularly hard to defeat and require two or three hits before they blow up.

Some pigs leave behind bonus icons when they explode. Collecting these can increase throwing power, gas other pigs (while providing you with a useful gas mask) or boost running ability. Other extras include a blast suit (protection against one direct hit), smart bombs (to clear the whole screen) and extra carrying power.

Play is divided into a series of rounds interspersed with a bonus level. Pigs pop up from craters in the ground inviting you to kiss them before they shyly pop down again. Kiss as many pigs as possible to see your bonus rating and your status as porky psycho rise.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: porky characters with no backgrounds
Sound: good of country barn dance music on the 128K playing throughout the game
Options: continue play option when dead, definable keys

Yeah, blow up them cute little pigs and save your bacon (groan!). Psycho Pig UXB may not be a fantastically brilliant game and it may not have a superhuman hero in it, but I like it. All you have to do is run around the screen blowing up your opponents, collecting bonus object and rescuing little piglets (ahhh). There are a variety of piggy pals to blow up, some wearing their cool shades and some almost in their birthday suits! Tim Follin's 128K music really gets the foot tapping and makes every pig look like he's doing a jig. Psycho Pig UXB is full of surprises and has some very nice graphics here and there, so don't hog all those blockbuster games, play with the pigs!
NICK [70%]

Well if this is the sort of arcade game that Jaleco produce then perhaps they're wise to keep their machines in Japan. The transfer to the Spectrum is not the problem - in fact, Software Creations have done a fine job - the fault lies with the arcade machine in the first place. Games this are only suited arcade atmosphere. They'll keep you addicted for five or six goes, but any more and you're bored! Such a game should never have been licensed by US Gold in the first place. Psycho Pig UXB won't keep any computer owner hooked for more than a few days. The options screen is about the best part of the game - at least it's not cluttered up with farmyard creatures. Psycho Pig UXB isn't even funny! With such bad material the programmers could do little better.
PAUL [50%]

Having got their hands on a real porker of a game, US Gold have taken almost every chance they've got to ham it up. The object is surprisingly simple and incredibly silly; a prime recipe for excellently addictive play. As it stands, Psycho Pig UXB is quite good fun - it would have been even better if a bit of colour had been included. The piggy parade at the beginning of each game gives a tantalising list of colour-coded names (obviously left over from the coin-op). Unfortunately as there are no colours on this conversion, none of them are in the least bit relevant. All the pigs look exactly the same, so in the scuffling, snuffling fray you can't really tell them or their particular traits of character apart. The arena which could have been bursting with humorous activity just looks pale, tired and wan. It doesn't spoil the pleasure of bombing porky piglets but it doesn't mean that this is one of those conversion which is unlikely to hog the limelight for very long.
KATI [75%]

US Gold
£8.99
Reviewer: Duncan MacDonald

If you were paying attention you probably saw Phil's mega scoop preview in the June ish. If you weren't then you deserve a slap on the trotter (slap, squeal). Anyway, there's some good news: the game is now out! Some more good news is that I'm going to try to review it without resorting to the use of countless 'piggy puns.' I wonder if I'll succeed? Here goes (chops away).

As Phil divulged, Psycho Pig is a coin-op conversion of a Jaleco arcade machine called Pigs And Bombers which hasn't actually been imported into this country, so you probably won't have seen it.

As you may have gathered the game is based on the zany antics of everybody's favourite farmyard chums. Yes, pigs. And in this case the pigs are armed and extremely dangerous. Let's have a butchers (groan).

After a brief introductory parade of your fellow constestants, the playing area is revealed and your pig enters from screen left. Also on screen are your porky opponents and loads of bombs with numbers on them. The referee blows his (pig and) whistle and spammo - the game is on.

Moving at the speed of ham (quickly), your opponents zoom about the screen, pick up bombs, zoom about the screen a bit more and then eject their explosive payloads - quite often in your direction. You have to do much the same thing; the object being to turn them into crackling while dodging about and saving your own bacon.

The bombs, when thrown, travel a half screenish distance before coming to rest. If they hit a pig before coming to rest, they explode - taking out anyone in their immediate vicinity. If they hit a wall they bounce back - following Newton's laws.

The action is pretty frantic, but a lot of bombs do tend to come to rest, and this is where the numbers embellished on them (remember?) come into play. On leaving a pig's trotters a bomb will begin to count down towards zero. The seconds tick away visually until at about three seconds (and counting) the bomb will begin to flash. Guess where it isn't a good idea to be standing? (Next to the bomb? An incredibly astute reader) Yes, that's right - unless you want to pop your cork (or, indeed, cop your pork).

"Psycho Pig is a porker of a corker."

As you progress up the levels things get, as you might expect, a lot trickier - the initial countdown number on the bombs get smaller, some of the bombs start counting down without even being picked up and the pigs get harder to kill - requiring more direct hits.

Occasionally a deceased opponent will leave behind a little icon. Helpful little chaps, these, bestowing you with extra powers; throw further, blast protection suit, wider explosion and run faster to name but four.

Every so often, between the levels, there is a sub-game: a section where you can get to fatten up your score. For about one minute pigs will pop their heads up out of holes in the ground. What you have to do is run around planting kisses on their gobs before they pop back down again. The more tongue sarnies you deliver, the more points you get.

The graphics are animated nicely. and there's no colour clash (largely because there's no colour - but this is the kind of game where different coloured sprites would cause horrendous problems). In the sound department it's just spot effects on 48K, but on 128K there's a continuous tune (sort of an Irish jig stroke hillbilly foot stomper). Oh, and by the way, there's a simultaneous two-player option, so you can throw bombs at your best friend as well.

All in all, Psycho Pigs UXB is a porker of a corker. As addictive as bacon and twice as sausagey - especially on 128K.

Anyway - how did I do in the 'not making any awful piggy-pun stakes?' (not very well. Ed). Oh.

Label: US Gold
Author: Software Creations
Price: £8.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

You can't say, "Psycho Pig is like Maniac Corpse Munchers, with a bit of Space Vegetables thrown in," 'cos it's a brand new format; whether it's a good one is another question.

Converted from a little-seen Jaleco coin-op called Mr Pig, or Pigs and Bombs or something, Psycho Pig UXB is a non-stop epic of porcine pulverisation. Yes, the idea is to smash those swine, and the sausages really start flying from the first screen.

Although the backgrounds are resolutely dull - they just change colour from level to level - there's a kind of depth effect which gives a 3-D impression (but no more than an impression) as you move around the screen.

The screen's full of bombs and pigs. The aim is to use the bombs to blow up the pigs, and avoid being blown to bits of bacon yourself. You get lots of lives to start with (you'll need them) and the graphics and animation are cute, though not unusually clever (no use of colour, for a start).

Before you start each round, you're treated to a pig parade in which you're shown all the enemies you have to face on the next level. Blackie is described as "grim", Reddie as "obstinate" and so on, but since you can't tell one from another at the game's playing (and they all act the same anyway), what's the point?

On to the game itself. As the timer ticks away, you have to zoom around picking up bombs. Each bomb has a timer; picking it up activates the timer, which ticks away until you throw the bomb. Hang on to it too long and you'll be reduced to chipolatas as you fly gracefully across the screen. If you manage to throw the bomb in time, it will explode on contact with any of your bomb-throwing opponents. If you miss, though, the bomb will come to rest, and can be picked up again.

Various bonus items can be picked up. Tonic gives you a longer throw; rice balls allow you to run faster; gas capsules can put some enemies to sleep; some objects score you bonus points or lives, and the protective suit turns you into a little armoured piggy, resistant to one direct hit. If your reactions are fast enough, you can even duck under flying bombs (with trotters over eyes). On bonus levels, you have to dash around a circle of pig-pits, kissing other piggies on the snout. On subsequent levels, you meet faster moving, heavily armoured pigs, bouncing bombs and shorter fuses.

Basically, opinion in the jolly old office was sharply divided. Tony "Megadeath" Dillon liked the Brechtian juxtaposition of cuteness and violence. Jim "Sid the Sexist" Douglas saw Bergmanesque irony in the underlying themes. (Wah? Noone asked me - TH). I thought it was good for a quick porking, but I wouldn't want to be stranded on a desert island with it.

Nice try then but I think the predicted interest curve would plummet fairly sharply after the first couple of bashes.

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £8.99, Diskette: £14.99

LIKE A RIND-BLOWN SOW PLOY

The swine starring in Psycho Pigs UXB make Animal Farm's tyrannical Napoleon look a total boar - these pigs are really out to bring home the bacon. The game is licensed from the Jaleco coin-op, Pigs And Bombers and renamed by US Gold staff following a memo sent round requesting an apt title. It was converted by Software Creations (Bubble Bobble and Bionic Commando). fame.

In an intergalactic pig-sty the toughest, meanest porkers are gathered together to once and for all sort out which of them is the Psycho Pig of the millenium. Hopefully it will be you or a friend - Psycho Pigs can be played solo or by two players simultaneously.

DICING WITH PORK

The arena is set on one screen and before play commences opposing pigs and bombs are positioned. Each bomb has a different fuse length (ranging from five to 20 seconds). Your objective is simple - pick up a UXB (UneXploded Bomb) and lob it at an opponent.

Bombs hitting pigs explode them, sending your targets to that great sty in the sky. However, should one miss, the timer continues to counts down to zero and then explodes, taking the life of any nearby pig. Killing off an adversary rewards you with an icon to give your pig additional power, speed, stun or a protective coat.

After every third screen, there's a bonus round. From 16 holes up pop sows and your pig must kiss as many as possible to rack up a score. You carry on kissing and killing until all your three lives are lost. A credit feature enables you to continue a game from the screen on which you died.

The action is incredibly silly, and for that reason quite captivating, making a welcome change from serious simulations and hard-core shoot-'em-ups.