Producer: Imagine
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Source Ltd

You can't keep a good goddess down - in this sequel to Imagine's Athena (75% Overall in Issue 45) the voluptuous Athena is once again battling through a dangerous six-level world, rescuing humanity from a race of demons.

The 30 screens of each level are inhabited by these lethal beasts begging for a blast from Athena's laser or her bombs. She gathers points by destroying them, and the power of both laser and bombs can be increased by gathering icons which Athena reveals by destroying rock formations.

But some of these rocky blockages hide icons that can quickly drain Athena's energy - even the humble mushroom has its malevolent magic...

The dashing damsel must leap and jump from platform to platform, thinking quickly when anything blocks her way - if she just stands still she'll be outrun by the constantly scrolling landscape and crushed against an obstruction. This goddess isn't immortal, though she can acquire temporary indestructibility by shooting the globe which hatches from inside of an egg.

And Athena must destroy the building at the end of each level to move to the next - to face another monstrous army.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: Intricately and smoothly animated; but the colour is terrible
Sound: tune and spot effects

Why is Athena being chased by the Keystone Cops? Perhaps she's being hunted down for impersonating Sindy Doll. Whatever the crime, the slow scrolling screens aren't letting her run fast enough to escape the deadly touch of her cute pursuers. But once you've mastered the strange controls Athena is fun
BYM [75%]

Athena was great fun but Psycho Soldier is nowhere near the mark. The graphics are unimaginative, the sound is grinding, and playability suffers from the eponymous star's slow reactions. Psycho Soldier also needs much more variation: the first level is a terrible bore, requiring very little thought.
PAUL [69%]

Psycho Soldier has all the fun and frolics of Athena, though it's a bit too similar. The graphics aren't as good as the original's, the colour is dismal and the number of bombs whining around your head can be confusing; but challenging gameplay and well-defined characters make Psycho Soldier a worthwhile follow-up to a brilliant game.
NICK [83%]

Imagine
£7.95
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

It's good to see there are still a few decent people left in the world, even if they do have daft names like 'Athena'. Having returned from her first quest, she's off to save humanity again. This time we've all been enslaved by a race of evil demons, and she's coming to bust us out!

While the demon-infested world scrolls smoothly across the screen (yup, it's one of those!), you've got to dash to the end of each level and blow up the building you'll find there.

Naturally the demons don't take too kindly to all this, and they'll do their best to stop you. Sadly for them, all they seem to be capable of is wandering backwards and forwards hoping to bump into you, so they're fairly easy to pick off with your standard issue laser weapon.

As you've probably guessed by now, there's more to this than just shooting things. That's right, you can collect things too! Bombs come in quite handy. For some reason, once picked up they'll orbit around Athena like flies around a copy of Sinclair User, but then whizz off and blow things up when fired.

Graphically Psycho Soldier presents no problems. Everything is disgustingly slick 'n'smooth, with the sprites almost oozing around the screen. It's all monochrome, of course, as these days most programmers seem to have forgotten the Speccy works in colour too. So what's wrong with the odd attribute problem here and there?

I'd have liked a bit more sound too. All you get, in fact, is the odd PHLOORP noise when your gun goes off - not the sort of thing to keep you bopping through the night.

What you want to know, though, is how it plays. Happily Psycho Soldier's simple design pays off and other than the odd unfortunate moment (like the time I appeared in a wall and couldn't get out!) it's fun all the way. Nothing amazingly original, but a well-tried formula that'll keep the punters happy.

Label: Imagine
Author: Source Software
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tamara Howard

It's got the lot. Sex. Violence. Giant insects. Bombs. Spaceships. Evil zombies. And Laser beams.

Why, then, is this arcade extravaganza - in which heroine Athena "cuts a bloody swathe down through the demon-infested hell of an oppressed world" - so pedestrian?

Once you've realised that the melon-breasted heroine on the cover is actually represented by a smurf-like gnome in the game, and that this sequel is basically the same idea as the original game Athena without the pretty background graphics there's not much left to be excited about.

Psycho Soldier - a pretty inappropriate title if you ask me - is a three-level romp in which heroine Athena is armed with psychic blasts, bombs, and if you can find and pick up the appropriate icons, an invulnerable shield.

A flying saucer, which can shoot down a few enemies before it deposits Athena on the screen, starts each life. On the first level, Athena, surrounded by her revolving bombs, has to waddle through the caverns, jumping from level to level to avoid zombies. Stone walls can sometimes be blasted out of the way, and sometimes have to be avoided if you don't want to be crushed as the screen scrolls along.

There are six levels, each comprising thirty screens, and on each level some of the blocks are blasted aside to reveal icons which will augment your laser power, energy, or bombs. Each screen is displayed in a single colour. At the end of each level is a giant monster - on the first, a rapidlystriking snake - which can only be destroyed by a judicious combination of lasers and bombs. If you can find and destroy the egg, and shoot the globe which emerges from it, you will become indestructible until your energy runs out.

As you might have gathered, Psycho Soldier is competently done, nothing fantastic.

The sound effects, even on the 128K version which plays in in one go rather than having to be loaded level by level, are unremarkable, and the collision detection likes to please itself so you can't be too confident about finely-judged manoeuvres.

Athena again? Imagine!

Having escaped the clutches of the Dark Overlord, Athena once more plays lead sprite in this sequel to Imagine's game of the same name. Again it's a licensed coin-op conversion which sees the player controlling Athena as she battles through six levels of scrolling platform shoot-em-up.

Armed with a front-firing gun and four bombs that float around her, Athena must make it to the end of each level's 30 screens that continually scroll from right to left. The levels are infested with demons, contact with whom costs Athena one of her four lives.

At the base of the screen is displayed an energy bar and red icons showing how many bombs she has left. The energy bar relates to the strength of the bombs and at various places throughout the levels extra bombs and energy can be gained by destroying large bricks. These bricks also hide some unpleasant icons that drain energy on contact, so you have to be careful to avoid these. Make it to the end of the level and you'll find a building guarded by a monster that has to be destroyed by a combination of bombs and laser fire - if you lose a life, you also lose any bombs and energy you picked up on the way, making life difficult if you happen to come up against the monster with only your laser.

Psycho Soldier may have been an addictive and playable coin-op, but as a computer game it soon becomes tedious and boring to play.

Reviewer: Andy Smith

RELEASE BOX
C64/128, £8.95cs, £12.95dk, Imminent
Ams, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Imminent
Spec, 48k, £7.95cs, Out Now
Spec +3, £14.95dk, Imminent

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 60/100
1 hour: 70/100
1 day: 30/100
1 week: 10/100
1 month: 0/100
1 year: 0/100