Grandslam/Teque
£9.99 cass, £14.99 disk

One of two Grandslam Sego coin-op based releases this month, Scramble Spirits is set in the 21st century and is a six level, vertical scrolling shoot-'em-up that pits either one or two players against a mysterious enemy. Your craft looks outdated for this technologically advanced time, but its weaponry isn't too bad: spray bullets and bombs for ground based targets. And you need all the weaponry you can get your gloved hands on - the enemy literally pour at you in a wide range of deadly air and ground craft.

Life would be short indeed if it weren't for some unexpected help: occasionally enemies, when shot, drop useful little gadgets called Outriders - small drones which can be picked up (a maximum of two at any given time). Use them to boost your firepower, or in sticky situations hold down the fire button to hurtle them at the enemy with explosive effect. No game of this type would be complete without end of level abominations, in this case huge mechanical monsters: make sure you're equipped with Outriders!

If enemies make life difficult just wait for the graphics - where are the sun glasses? Hunt for the character sprite seems to be the programmers' motto: planes, guns, tanks etc are monochromatic, but the background colours are so garish it's difficult to keep track of yourself.

Being a sucker for punishment even this drawback did not quite kill the fun for me, and if this sort of shoot-'em-up format gets to you, Scramble Spirits is worth a try.

MARK [72%]

Hmm, remember Dragon Spirit? Well, Scramble Spirit is basically it with different graphics! A shoot- 'em-up in the same style as billions of others. One good thing about the game is that all the graphics are of really good quality, with lots of detail on all the sprites. Where it's let down is in the colour department. Monochrome all round I'm afraid, and this of course makes it difficult to see what's going on in the game. Sound is a bit better with a reasonable tune and spot effects. Scramble Spirits is totally unoriginal, but then so was the arcade machine, so perhaps it's a brilliant conversion! if you fancy a frantic bash at a fire button then try this.
NICK [69%]

Grandslam
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Duncan MacDonald

Imagine you're piloting a World War II aeroplane, you're flying along happy as can be, when all of a sudden there's a giant spirally hazy shape in front of you. "What on earth can that be?" you cry, wrenching the joystick to the left in an attempt to avoid it. "Surely it can't be..." And then you hit it.

Yes, as you regain consiousness, you realise that your earlier fears have been confirmed. The giant spirally hazy thing was in fact a Time Warip (straight out of The Twilight Zone), you've jumped forward a century or two and you're now flying at angels two zero above a rather futuristic-looking landscape. There are turrets that fire deadly beams of light at your plane, And what have you got in the way of a reply? Lots of little pieces of lead that come out of tube things on the underside of your wings, that's what. Oh dear. Bullets are rather useless sometimes, aren't they?! (Yes, sometimes they are. Ed)

So that's pretty much the gist of Scramble Spirits, Grandslam's new viewed-from-above vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up.

Each of its five levels are in monochrome, so the first question you'll probably want answered is "Does it suffer from the invisible-bullet syndrome?" I can report, happily, that no, it doesn't. (Well, not much anyway.) While the aeroplane sprites are all on the small side, the bullets, proportionately, are quite large. So, what exactly do you have to do then? Quite simple really - shoot absolutely everything that moves. There are both ground-based and airborne enemy craft to destroy - planes, tanks and gun emplacements to name but a few. And I suppose you'll be wanting to know what other firepower you have at your disposal in order to bring about all this carnage and destruction, won't you? Um, just the bullets, actually. No power-up icons in Scramble Spirits, matey. Well, as a matter of fact there is one type of add-on to be collected, namely a smart bomb. This doesn't mean that it's particularly intelligent, it just means that when you let it off it blows everything in sight to kingdom come. These smart bombs certainly aid your progress, but, as you can only use each one twice (added to the fact that there are hardly millions of them lying around), they're best hung onto until you really need them. Mind you, this is easier said than done, because, once collected, the smart bomb attaches itself to the side of your plane. This makes you a bit wider, and therefore easier to hit, which means you might find the bomb getting blown up before you get the chance to use it to full effect.

The mega-nasties at the end of the levels get, as you might imagine, increasingly bigger and more deadly, but there's something you're not allowed to take into these battle arenas - the smart bombs. You're relegated to bullets again I'm afraid (like in Xenon). The mega-nasties' firing tactics are similar to those in Xenon as well, with stream up stream of bullets coming at you thick and fast. Dodge, dodge, dodge, fire into its 'mouth'. Dodge, dodge, dodge, fire into its 'mouth'. See?

There's a two player mode, which allows you and a chum to engage in shooting antics simultaneously. With one player guarding the left of the screen and the other the right, progress is made much simpler (and even more fun). Mind you, when a smart bomb icon comes into view it's going to be a bit of a scramble making sure that you're the one who actually gets it. In fact, you'll probably be killed for your troubles, so lean over and give your 'co-pilot' a quick back hander across the bridge of the nose. This should warn him off in the future.

All in all, Scramble Spirits is a rather enjoyable and absorbing little shoot-'em-up. For me, though, there's just one thing missing - and that's a few more extra weapons.

Label: Grandslam
Author: Tecque
Price: £9.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter

There isn't much to say about Scramble Spirits that isn't obvious from the screen shots; it's a vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up based on the Sega arcade game, it's as close as you could expect to the original, and it's not much fun. You wouldn't think so from the shots; but this is one of those games which look nice, but which turn out to be unplayable.

The small, detailed monochrome graphics might look good in a still, but once everything's flying around, and you're trying to keep track of your plane, your partner's plane (on the two-player game), all the enemy planes, missiles, bombs and bullets, the whole thing just gets frustrating.

Picking up the odd special weapon, such as a drone which can be fired like a guided missile, adds a little to the fun, but basically if you have 1942 or Flying Shark, you won't get much extra out of Scramble Spirits. Indigestion, maybe.

Grandslam
Spectrum £9.99, ST £19.99, Amiga £24.99

Five levels of blasting action await the budding pilot in Scramble Spirits, where the task is to remove the threat posed by enemy squadrons by, well, blowing them up.

Starting with only a measly gatling gun and unlimited bombs, drone planes can be collected along the vertically scrolling route which attach themselves to your aircraft and can be used either as extra firepower or smart bombs.

If you manage to reach the end of a stage, a large battle station lies in wait (sometimes guarded by heavy shielding which your fighter first has to disarm). Destroying this craft allows the pilot to land, refuel, resupply and carry on to the next level.

After every other stage (there are five in all) is a bonus level; here, you have to fly up the screen and blow up the enemy craft which are dis played as expanded sprites Killing them all earns a hefty points bonus, while being shot down gives you nowt.

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99
Amstrad CPC Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99
Commodore 64/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99
Atari ST £19.99
Amiga £19.99

THE WILD BLUE YONDER BECKONS...

Based on the crusty old Sega coin-op Scramble Spirits is a six-level vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up (similar to 1942).

Even though this is supposed to be the 21st century, you are sent out in a bog-standard propeller plane - so much for technology! The plane is armed with a spray-bullet gun and bombs. Plenty of alien technology is waiting for you, so be grateful the ammo is unlimited. On the other hand, the enemy attack with state-of-the-art technology: jet planes, tanks and gun turrets etc. As is the norm with games of this type, you can soon even the stakes by shooting down a few enemy bombers and picking up the odd extra weapon or plane.

Also available are outriders: small airplane drones that can be collected from the shattered remains of the huge helicopters which occasionally buzz around. They flank your craft (two can be held at one time) and depending on their height destroy either air or ground targets. If the alien scum get too close for comfort, holding down the fire button will send one of the outriders zooming off on a kamikaze mission.

Occasionally you'll enter a bonus screen. Here your over-sized character sprite has to destroy numerous enemy aircraft as they rush down the screen. A percentage rating is allocated depending on the amount of destruction you cause.

Once you have battled your way to the end of a level a guardian is faced. This can be either land-based or airborne, but whichever you encounter, it is sure to put up a fight. Earth is depending on you, don't let us down.