Producer: Electric Dreams
Retail Price: £9.99

Green eyed girls are in big demand, for only by marrying and sacrificing one can the villainous, Mandarin Lo Pan secure a mortal body. The girlfriends of Jack Burton and Wang Chi are captured for this very purpose, and taken down into the underground world lying beneath San Francisco's Chinatown.

In order to rescue Gracie Law and Miao Yin, our heroes, accompanied by their friend Egg Shen, must tight a way through Chinatown and into the Mandarin's sewer world.

Jack Burton at first defends himself only with his fists, though if he can get far enough into the Mandarin's lair he can pick up and use a Bushmaster gun and ammunition.

Wang Chi is a martial arts expert who is able to pick up and use any sword he finds. Blades become fragile and eventually break, but replacements are found en route.

Unlike his two walking companions, Egg Shen floats along on a cushion of mystical vapour. Magical powers are his forte though initially the magic bolts he fires have limited range and strength. On finding a potion bottle he can shoot devastating lightning bolts over greater distances. Shen's zapping ability has a limited life, but picking up fresh potion supplies revives his strong magic.

Controlling all three characters, you can switch between them at any time - by typing the initial letter of the characters name you want to take the lead. He is then leapfrogged to the front with the other two following. Each prospective hero is able to move forwards or backwards, jump, duck and attack at different heights, (from low to high). Weapons are picked up by walking the appropriate character over them.

As they progress the status of each hero is given, Burton to the left, Chi in the centre and Shen to the right. In each character's window, together with their portraits are three entwined yin and yang signs - the male and female Chinese symbols of destiny. These indicate stamina levels and are reduced by exertion and contact with the Mandarin's guardians and his magic - food replenishes these reserves. A character dies when his entire stock of Yin and Yang signs vanishes. Collecting a potion bottle adds strength to all three heroes.

The scenario unfolds over four levels. On the streets of Chinatown the Mandarin's hoodlums are encountered. Highly skilled in the martial arts or carrying guns and swords, some of these evasive, somersaulting thugs do not allow our rescuers to pass without a fight.

Street warriors also patrol the sewers of the next level, but now they are accompanied by energy sapping sewer monsters that cannot be killed, only evaded.

Lo Pan's Headquarters make up the third level, populated by hat wearing elemental beings called Storms. At every level when gangsters or thugs are killed they evaporate into a smoke-puff. Points are credited at the base of the screen, on the death of each. Weapon-wielding thugs and Storms give more points when destroyed. Defeat these and the other henchmen and Lo Pan himself can be faced in combat.

The Marriage Chamber at the headquarters heart is the last level. Here Armoured warriors appear, accompanied by to Pan who floats on a flying cloud. The united skills of all three heroes are required to defeat the Mandarin, for Lo Pan must be shot, pierced and zapped before he is eventually killed. On his death Miao Yin and Grade Law can embrace their men once more.

COMMENTS

Control keys: I/O left/right, Y/H up/down, P to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: smooth moving, animated foreground spates with detailed but unvarying backgrounds
Sound: good play tune and suitably hefty spot FX
Skill levels: one
Screens: four levels

I'm sure that all the martial arts gamesters will love this one. Big Trouble is a good likeness to the film, running around pulverising the enemy - making a change from the usual sub-standard conversions. The graphics are not the usual run-off-mill either, but the backgrounds have an inclination to repeat on all levels. The characters' animation is also very effective, with a different forms of movement lending a distinct personality to each. The tune lends an oriental atmosphere, helping add even more to the overall effect. I enjoyed playing Big Trouble - but it would be better if it were slightly cheaper.
GARETH.

What a disappointment Big Trouble is... The music's excellent and very appropriate for the game. The effects are crunching, even if they aren't very varied. The graphics are very detailed and well drawn - the backgrounds scrolling smoothly. But that's about it! The game contains little else. I got very quickly bored with just blowing up every tough character that stepped in my way. Superb presentation, but no game. If you pay ten pounds for this you'll be disappointed.
PAUL

This isn't a particularly amazing game; the graphics are only adequate, but the playability is there and there's a few hours enjoyable scrapping to be had. I haven't seen the film (and ir friends' comments are anything to go on, then I'm one of the lucky ones!) so I can't draw any comparisons, but the game is reasonable; the only problem being its high price. I doubt its tastabllity - maybe a few days. maybe a bit more - but certainly not ten quid's worth. Have a look, if only because there haven't been that many good beat 'em ups lately.
MIKE

Electric Dreams
£9.99

Hyahh! Kawasaki! Origami! Thud! Sorry about that, just practising my lotus blossom eats preying mantis position. That's the one where you do a neck chop, a triple somersault, and pull a machine gun from behind your back and yell "surprise".

Enough of this, let's get on with the game. Big Trouble in Little China was a film that appeared recently - it wasn't too bad, so Electric Dreams brought out a game too. Stands to reason, dunnit. The plot is this - nasty 'orrible mandarin Lo Pan is bored of being spiritual and wants a proper body to walk about in. First of all, though, he has to marry a girl with a fun personality, who's good at parties - oh yes, she's got to have green eyes. Then he has to sacrifice her! Unfortunately, his dippy henchmen kidnap girlfriends of Wang Chi and Jack Burton, so these two brave lads, plus a third called Egg Shen, tootle off into the sewers of San Francisco to find them.

You control all three characters, but life is made easier by the fact that you need to control the leading one, as the others follow after: You start your trail through to levels to face Lo Pan with no weapons at all, although there are some scattered about to picked up. Each player has his own particular favourite - Jack has a gun, Egg has potent magic and Wang has a sword. These aren't easy to get, though, and you've got to be nifty with your fists at first.

The bottom third of the screen shows the characters' faces and there are yin-yang symbols showing your lives and your weapon, if you have one. Your score is also shown which, when the last character dies, turns to zero. Mind you, if one of you croaks, you might as well give up anyway, as you need the combined skills of all three to win the game.

The scrolling is smooth, the animation is nifty - especially Egg Shen's floating cloud, and altogether, it's a pretty good game. One gripe I do have is that the martial arts experts are easy to kill, but the gun-toting baddies are almost impossible to waste unless you have a weapon, and you don't, for most of the time. I also found the sewer monsters hard to deal with. The blurb says you have to jump over them as they can't be kilted. Poppycock! You can't jump high enough, and it's easier to walk past 'em anyway. Apart from that though, A Bit Of Bother in Little China is another great game from the lotus blossom eats preying mantis school - ah so!

BARGAIN BASEMENT

As those modern philosophers Status Quo once said, "Down down deeper and down, down down deeper and down." MARCUS BERKMAN trips in the stairwell...

Alternative
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Another film tie-in that dates from the same period in Electric Dreams' history that produced Howard The Duck, which means, yup, another clinker. Not that there's anything sadder than a much-trumpeted film tie-in for a film no one remembers (it was an adventure flick directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell), but at least that means we can happily forget the game as well. Not surprisingly it's another martial arts variant, and so everything boils down to people punching you, or occasionally, for variety, you punching them back. You control three characters, each of whom likes to fight with a different weapon, and much of the interest in the game lies in finding these weapons. But, the balance of the game is all wrong. The martial arts johnnies are easy enough to kill, but the geezers with guns are impossible to get past unless you've got a gun too (makes sense if you think about it). No, we've seen it all too often before, and done thousands of times better.

Coming, erm, now actually, to a cinema near you...

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO FILM AND TELLY GAMES

Knowing full well what a square-eyed bunch you are, we thought it was about time you were given the facts on film and television licenced games. Once again, JONATHAN DAVIES was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

(Cough. Deep, manly voice.)

'In the beginning there were loads and loads of Speccy games. Loads of them. They sold all right, but not exactly in enormous numbers. The trouble was, you see, that none of them seemed particularly exciting. They had nothing that caught the public eye. They were just computer games. Had no 'cred'.

Then a small cog within a long-since-extinct software house had an idea.

"Why don't we give our next game the same name as an incredibly popular film? Then everyone would buy it just because they'd seen the film and they'd foolishly think the game would be just as good. How about i, eh?"

"Er, we could do, I suppose."

"Great."

"But what if the film company finds out? They might sue us or something."

"Oh yeah."

"Tcha."

"I know - we could ask them first."

"That's a point. Go on then."

"What? Me?"

"Yeah. Give them a ring and ask if they'd mind."

"Oo-er. Cripes. Okay then." (Dials very long trans-Atlantic phone number.)

"Hullo. We'd like to name our new game after your film and we were wondering if it was okay by you. Right... yes... oh, I see." (Cups hand over receiver.) "They want us to give them lots of money."

"Erm, well in that case we'd better." (Removes hand.) "Yes, that'll be fine. We'll send you some right away. Bye."

"Super."

"But. er..."

"What?"

"How are we going to come up with a game that's anything like the film?"

"I don't know really."

"How about if we have a bloke walking around shooting people?"

"That sounds fine. I'll program it right away."

And so the film and telly licence was born. It... cough. Choke.

Oops. There goes the deep, manly voice.

Anyway, film and telly games, eh? Everyone's doing them these days, as they're one of the few remaining ways of making serious money with computer games. Run a grubby finger down the charts and you'll find nearly all the top-sellers are film and telly licences. (Or arcade conversions, of course.)

But why do we keep buying them? After all, just because a game's named after a really brill film doesn't mean it's going to be any good, does it? Surely we aren't buying them simply because of the flashy name on the box?

Erm, well in the old days, software houses assumed this to be the case, and chucked out a stream of absolutely appalling games with 'big name' titles. Things like Miami Vice, The Dukes Of Hazard and Highlander were all pretty dreadful, but it was hoped that they'd sell on the strength of their names. But we weren't fooled. Oh no. The games didn't sell well, and the companies were forced to think again.

Eventually they came up with... the 'bloke walking around shooting things' idea. And they've used it more or less ever since. Lucky then that they tend to be jolly good all the same, and sometimes come up with the odd original idea to spice things up (like The Untouchables did, or perhaps Back To The Future Part II).

RATINGS

As always seems to be the case, the trusty YS ratings system doesn't really seem adequate when it comes to film and telly games. So here's what we've put together instead...

LIGHTS
What does it look like? Nice? Or not very nice at all? (You mean are the graphics any good? Ed) Er, yes. That's it in a nutshell. (Then why didn't you just say the first place? Ed) Erm...

CAMERA
How does the general atmosphere compare to the film or telly programme the game's meant to go with? Have programmers just taken a bog-standard game and stuck a flashy name on it? Or have they made an effort to incorporate a bit of the 'feel' of the original?

ACTION
Does the plot follow along the same sort of lines as the film or telly programme? Is there plenty action-packedness? And is the game the same all way through, or does it follow the original's twists and turns?

CUT
Um, how does the game compare to all the licences around at the moment? Is it better? Or worse? In other words, is it a 'cut' above the rest? (is that really the best you can manage? Ed)

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA
Electric Dreams

The film was probably a bit crap (I didn't actually see it), and so's the game unfortunately. It's a very ordinary scrolling beat-'em-up where you've got to rescue a couple of chicks who've been kidnapped by some baddie or other. There are a couple of novelties. The most exciting one is that it scrolls from left to right (ie your character walks along from right to left), which means that the other innovation isn't very thrilling at all. You actually control three characters, although two of them just follow the third around. You've got to swop between them to take advantage of the special skills of each.

The graphics aren't particularly good, naff animation being her main problem. There's not a lot of variety either - just two main types of baddie and the odd weapon to pick up. But the numero uno snag is that it just feels a bit silly. The character under your control responds very strangely to the controls - not in the least bit human - and the other two look ridiculous following your every move. Worst of all though is that it's just a beat-'em-up with a film's name bolted on. Tsk.

Label: Electric Dreams
Author: M D Software
Price: £7.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Andy Moss

One of the first thoughts that struck me after I had seen the film Big Trouble in Little China was what a good computer game it would make. All that martial arts and non-stop action, someone was bound to do a tie-in.

And someone did and I can honestly say that Electric Dreams needn't have bothered if this is the best it could come up with.

What it amounts to is just a boring Kung Fu/Bruce Lee meets Rambo and takes on the baddies scenario, with absolutely no atmosphere, no sound effects to speak of, and no game to play as far as I can see.

The three main characters are pretty poorly depicted, and fight as though they are either dancing the hokey-cokey or doing an impression of Russian folk dancers. As for their dreaded opponents, they seem to be having a bad case of wind following a hefty beans dinner. All they do is either bounce up and down or hit you with a series of blurping noises which are supposed to sound like the meeting of limbs in battle, but don't.

The story line revolves around a villainous Mandarin who has a hankering for green eyed girls. He must marry one and then sacrifice her in order to appease a demon. He picks on two ladies who are the girl friends of Jack Burton and Wang Chi our fearless heroes, who are joined in their mission to free the girls by Egg Shen (who apart from being a dish in a Chinese take-away is also a magic user).

You can choose to become any one of these three in order to deal with the opponents' varying skills and the idea of the game is you battle through four stages to reach Lo Pan (the Manadrin), kill him by using all three characters' skills and free the girls.

Apart from some pleasant oriental music I could not find anything else to make me want to go out and buy this game.

I suggest you spend your money elsewhere.

MACHINES: C64/Spectrum/Amstrad
SUPPLIER: Electric Dreams
PRICE: £7.99 (Spectrum), £9.99 (C64/Amstrad), £14.99 (Discs)
VERSION REVIEWED: C64/Spectrum

Big Trouble was a really neat movie. But once again the dreaded curse of the movie spin-off has struck. Big Trouble has a reasonably good game idea, pretty graphics and nice sound - but it all gets let down by the tedious gameplay.

You get three characters to control. Each has different abilities and each is brought into action for different parts of the game.

If you've seen the film then you'll know the basic plot which is a simple save the girl from the evil, oriental mastermind adventure. And that's just what the plot of the game is.

You can control the heroes - Jack Burton, Wang-Chi and Egg Shen on their quest to save their girlfriends from the villainous Lo Pan.

Jack is armed with his fists and, when he finds it, a gun. Wang Chi is a martial arts ace who sometimes gets to use a sword and Egg Shen is a wizard who fights with mystical energy bolts.

Initially Jack is able to defend himself only with his fists. However if you can penetrate far enough into the Mandarin's empire you will find a Bushmaster gun which you may use. There is only a limited amount of ammunition, though more may be found lying around.

Wang Chi is gifted with a knowledge of the martial arts. In addition to this a sword will eventually be found. Swords have a comparatively short life and will eventually break. More swords may be found during play and if picked up will prolong the life of the sword you are carrying if you already have one.

At the beginning of the game Egg Shen uses magic bolts which he can fire from his fingers, those only have a very limited range. Eventually a magic potion in a bottle will be found which will enable him to use stronger magic. He will now have control over lightning bolts which will have devastating effects on the toughest of opponents.

This strong magic may be topped up by finding additional bottles of magic potion.

The game has four levels.

Level one: The Streets of Chinatown. Here your three heroes will encounter unarmed martial arts experts and gunmen. You will have to retreat can't defeat the gunmen until you have gained more experience. Warriors and other henchman will not allow you to run past them without fighting.

Level two: The Sewers: In addition to the combatants to be found on level one you will also find the Sewer Monsters here. You must avoid the Sewer Monsters by jumping over them as they cannot be killed.

Level three: Lo Pan's Headquarters: The Storms are elemental beings who must be defeated before you are able to face Lo Pan in combat. They maybe identified by the wide brimmed hats they are wearing.

Level Four: The Marriage Chamber: The Marriage Chamber, to be found at the heart of the headquarters, contains Armoured Warriors and Lo Pan.

The combat sequences aren't action packed enough and I quickly got bored kicking and punching my way past the various assailants.

There's no doubt that the game is very well packaged and presented - it just lacks that all important playability factor which would make you want to shell out your hard earned pennies on it. My advice is to save them for the film.

To defeat Lo Pan (who appears on a flying cloud in the Marriage Chamber) you will need the combined combat skills of all three characters; as he has the power of regeneration he will need to be shot, zapped and run through a number of times to finally kill him once and for all.

All of which sounds pretty neat, doesn't it? But the fact is that the game quickly becomes repetitive and you end up not really caring if you save the girls or not.

Electric Dreams
£9.95

The problem with licensing deals is that they are worked out so far in advance that nobody knows whether the original film is going to be a success. Electric Dreams seems to be buying film licences in job lots and Aliens was certainly a winner. Big Trouble in Little China, however, was released and disappeared without trace. Given that there aren't too many people who will be reliving the film through the game, Big Trouble in Little China has to stand entirely on its own merits. Unfortunately the game is little more than a run of the mill kung fu game with three characters with various combat skills making their way through four levels of action and beneath the streets of Chinatown, to rescue their girlfriends from the clutches of Mandarin Lo Pan.

Each of the three characters are specialists. Jack Burton is a marksman and there is a gun to be found once you've penetrated into the game. Wang Chi is a karate expert and skilled at sword play. Egg Shen is the most bizarre character as he flies around on a cloud hurling thunderbolts. As you progress through the levels you are confronted with both humans and monsters to defeat. You can switch control between characters very easily but as they are not independent characters and do nothing while they are uncontrolled, it seems an option whose potential is wasted.

The action simply scrolls from right to left and the same scenery tends to crop up regularly giving the impression you are just going round in circles. The game action is not particularly compelling and the light sequences are no more than average. Although there is nothing glaringly bad about Big Trouble there is nothing new or exciting either to set it apart from the general run of releases.