Producer: Creative Sparks
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Phil Snell & Dean Lock

Black Hawk is an arcade shoot em up of positively violent proportion. It is also a fairly complex game to get into at first and requires some concentration on the detailed inlay instructions. It is also the first translation to the Spectrum of the popular arcade game 'Xevious'. We would have to say at the outset however, that the Spectrum's display isn't up to the quality of a dedicated arcade machine, so no one must expect those extraordinary graphics. On the other hand, Creative Sparks have added some other interesting features and this is a game which uses 'Xevious' as a departure point rather than trying to be a copy.

The time is the near future and the place is a group of heavily defended islands. You are flying your Black Hawk. Your mission is to seek out and destroy enemy airfields and missile launching sites. There are, however, many other installations to destroy. Up against you are enemy anti-aircraft guns, helicopter gunships, SAM missiles and missile launchers. The success of your mission is gauged by your SLF figure (Strategic Loss Factor) - in other words you get points for targets destroyed, i.e. tanks, rockets, SAMs, aircraft ships, gunships, jets, helicopters and others. 'Others' are ground installations like factories.

Your aircraft has a computer attack system which features a two-screen display - the defence screen and the attack screen. In the attack screen a small yellow U at the bottom indicates your vertical position and a white cross-sight may be moved over targets. When it turns red, a missile is automatically fired to detonate the target. It can be used to destroy flying targets as well as ground targets, but any flying target which reaches the base of the screen will cause your computer to flip automatically to the defence screen. This shows the Black Hawk at the base of the screen and the approaching objects will soon appear at the top, flying rapidly down towards you. In this screen you may use your cannon to destroy the enemy. Successfully destroying them will return you to the attack screen again.

Your object is to gain a high OTPF (Optimum Target Percentage Figure). At the end of a mission this figure is calculated and, if high enough, additional weaponry may be added to your craft for further missions. Weaponry may also be removed if you fall below the appropriate figure. The weapons are ECM Pod which detects radar, radios and listening posts; X Cannon which increases fire power in the defence system; Blitvig which destroys all visible enemy units and is limited in use by your OTPF; and finally, the Wild Weasel which makes you invulnerable for a short time and may only be used once per mission.

This gives a brief (!) run down of what to expect from Black Hawk - there is more to it. Two skill levels, Rookie and Honcho, plus increasing difficulty.

COMMENTS

Control keys: cursors, or Q/A up/down, O/P left/right with 0 to fire
Joystick: Kempston, ZX 2, Fuller, AGF, Protek
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: very good generally, one small problem with the cross-sight
Graphics: very good, smooth and detailed, very fast
Sound: good noises and tune
Skill levels: 2 but increasing difficulty by mission
Screens: 2
Originality: loosely based on arcade original 'Xevious', but as a Spectrum shoot em up, entirely original

I haven't had as much fun since the last May fair brought the arcade machines to town for three days. I also have a very sore first finger from firing! The general trend recently has been away from shoot em ups to more complex adventurish games, but there's always room for a really good shoot em up and this is one of those. An awful lot is going on even at the start and on the lower level of skill, and by later missions the shrapnel is flying like snow in a blizzard. The graphics are all fairly small, although nicely detailed but they move very fast and smoothly and the down scrolling landscape is very smooth as well. Perhaps the only difficulty which is a bit aggravating is that the cross-sight when white is a bit hard to see on the blue of the sea. Black Hawk is a shoot em up that requires a great deal of concentration as well as very good hand and eye co-ordination. Extremely addictive!

Just what the doctor ordered! A fast, aggressive, brilliant shoot em up! First loading the game and reading through several screens of information, I decided to take on the task of destroying everything in sight and so I found myself confused by the way the screen kept on flicking over from one image to another. This is quickly overcome with several playings of the game, although to be fair it is indicated in the instructions on the inlay. It took me about half an hour to get used to the aggressive style this game plays by which time I was totally absorbed by the sheer single-mindedness of the enemy I was up against. The more I played this game, the more I wanted to play it, while the computer was throwing more and more defensive weapons at me in an attempt to eliminate me. The graphics come in various sizes from small to large but all reasonably in scale with each other. The various enemy objects are realistically animated, recoiling guns, rotating helicopter blades, rotating radar dishes etc. Colour and sound have both been used very well. This has got to be the best shoot em up game I've seen for an age, one that has loads of playability and addictive qualities and I still haven't seen what is yet to come.

I thought this was going to be a flight simulation game, little did I know that I was to be dumped in the midst of a raging battle. First impressions are rather daunting with all the instructions written in future jargon, but never fear, once into the game you can forget most of them. Also, at the outset the graphics seem a little disappointing, quite simple really, but somehow after half an hour's play they all seem fine, indeed very good, and suddenly there are so many things all over the place, whizzing, whirling and firing. Shoot em ups haven't exactly vanished from the scene thank goodness, but Black Hawk may well start a full-scale revival!

Sparklers
£1.99

The game with more padding than an LA Raider - Wagnerian music, five screens of intelligence reports, memos from strategic planning centre - and none of it helps you play the game. Don't you get nostalgic for the good old whizz bang days of Space Invaders, when all you had to do was prang the cabbage crates out of the cosmos?

Beneath all the baloney of Black Hawk lurks a sound shoot 'em up, which amidst all the adrenalin pumping carnage, requires a cool head and no little strategic planning. Black Hawk is the most sophisticated fighting plane of all time, its main resource being its computerised attack systems. Its mission is to destroy enemy missile launching sites and airfields - the ultimate target being the runway on mission eight, but you'll only get this far with the successful completion of the previous seven.

So if you don't want to be left wallying about on level one you have to successfully employ both your attack and defence screens. During the former you can attack crucial staionary targets with you missiles but you must also zap moving targets (wot can also zap you). Let any of these pass by and out the bottom of the screen and you'll go on to the defence screen where you'll have to use your cannon. Although you can defend your three lives nothing annihilated will count toward your OTPF (on target percent figure) so it's crucial not to miss hostile targets while on attack mode. The better the OTPF figure acquired, the better weaponry you'll be given and so a greater chance of victory. You can get anything from more cannons, to Blitvigs which marmalize all on-screen targets. Or for that 'once in a mission' feeling, try Wild Weasel which'll make you invulnerable for a whole five seconds. With only two skills levels, Rookie and Honcho, you'll have to learn fast if you want to be Top Gun, up there with the Fly Boys.

All in all a pretty good shoot 'em up that's well worth the price.

Use of Computer: 91%
Graphics: 89%
Playability: 95%
Getting Started: 92%
Addictive Qualities: 95%
Value for Money: 87%
Overall: 92%

The time is in the future, the place is a group of heavily defended islands. You fly your Black Hawk aircraft and your mission is to seek and destroy the enemy airfields and missile launching sites. The task is made all the harder by tanks, anti-aircraft guns, helicopter gunships plus many other things that only appear if you get to a certain point in the game. Your aircraft has a computer attack system which features a two screen display - the defence screen and the attack screen. In the attack screen a small yellow U at the bottom indicates vertical position and a white cross sight may be moved over targets. When this sight goes red a missile is automatically fired towards it to detonate the target. This can be used to destroy ground installations, tanks and flying targets. If a tank or a flying target or an enemy missile reach the base of the screen the computer automatically switches to the defence screen. On this screen you can actually see your Black Hawk aircraft, which is at the base of the screen, and you must destroy the on-coming enemies with your cannon before they get you. Success at this returns you to the attack screen.

At the end of a mission you are given an Optimum Target Percentage Figure (OTPF), this is calculated by how many enemy installations you have successfully destroyed. If this percentage is high enough then you will be given additional weaponry. This can also be removed if on your next mission your percentage isn't high enough.

At the time Black Hawk was released it was a very good shoot em up but by today's standards it seems to be just above average. The graphics while they do their job aren't perfect but the sound is still reasonable. Black Hawk is still quite addictive and as with most other shoot em ups it is instantly playable but for me it just seems a bit dated. If you really like shoot em ups then it's worth buying, otherwise you might as well stick to Moon Cresta.
RC

Black Hawk is still one of the best shoot em ups around in my opinion. Okay, the graphics aren't the best in the world but the game is so addictive you don't mind. The biggest advantage Black Hawk has over many other games is that it is instantly playable and what's more it doesn't wear off after a while. The sound is quite good especially the tune at the end of a bombing run. Overall still a good shoot em up which makes an enjoyable alternative to all those arcade adventures and platform games.
LM

(Rob) Most of the ratings should go down by about 10 - 15%, except perhaps the use of computer and playability which should go down by about 5%. This game hasn't survived the test of time at all well, I think that its graphics let it down the most, otherwise a reasonable shoot em up.

(LLoyd) I disagree, only the graphics rating should go down by about 10% the rest can stay the same. It is still very enjoyable and definitely worth buying.

HAWK SWOOPS IN FOR THE KILL

Memory: 48K
Price: £6.95
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Fuller, AGF/Protek

Black Hawk is one of the world's most sophisticated aircraft, jam-packed with missiles, cannons and similar deadly weapons. Jump in the cockpit, take off and head towards the enemy coast. Your mission - yes, you have guessed it - is to blow up everything you can as effectively as possible. After you have done that you also have to get away in one piece.

There are two playing screens. The first is a long range missile-firing screen. As the ground moves below, various enemy installations and war-machines appear. Those are two-dimensional and scroll down the screen in a map-like fashion. The ultimate aim is to find and destroy the enemy airbase. Once fired, missiles can be guided to the target with your joystick or control keys. Getting the hang of that will take some practice.

The second screen is for defending the plane against hostiles who manage to get through your missile screen undamaged.

Most dangerous of all are the SAM missiles which seem to get faster and faster as you progress up the score table. Extra weapon-systems are fitted to the Hawk if you score certain percentages of target hits. More and more targets and threats will also appear. There are two playing modes - tough and tougher.

Creative Sparks has produced a shoot-em-up of some complexity and the action is furious. The missile firing sight can get confusing at times and is barely visible over water. Controls are as fast as your reactions.

It is not a simulation, it will not stretch your intellect but it is difficult and demanding.

Label: Sparklers
Price: £1.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: John Gilbert

Would it frighten you to know that the world's most advanced airborne killer is a set of user defined graphic Us?

The UDGs pop up at the beginning of the game as Black Hawk is supposed to near the enemy coast line. Seconds later, as the first enemy helicopters appear from the top 8 of the jerkily scrolling screen, the UDGs transform into the aircraft.

Once you're set up to play - all parts of the screen functioning as they should - you drift inland and destroy as many enemy guns, tanks and installations as you can using bullets and bombs.

The bullets are hardly visible, being white against blue or green backgrounds and the bombs have a mind of their own.

You get a percentage score for the number of direct hits you've made on ground-based installations and a points score for aircraft you knock out.

Many of the missions I found are almost unplayable because of the fire power of your opponents. Helicopters, gun emplacements and tanks can fire diagonally at you while your puny gun in the nose of Black Hawk, can only fire forward.

The glossy cover promises a lot and fails to deliver.

MAKER: Creative Sparks
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £7.95

Your task is to fly "the deadliest plane yet created" on a series of eight missions over a totally militarized group of islands. Missiles, helicopters and tanks are trying to get you, while you try to knock them out and plaster various ground targets, too. There are two modes; the attack screen, a nicely scrolling map showing targets in range of your guided missiles, and a defence screen showing incoming hostiles. To fire missiles you move the sight (cursor) and lock it on target. In defence it's over to cannon fire. There are two levels, Rookie and Honcho, and a variety of bonus weapons when you complete a mission within certain parameters (mind you, if it's the "deadliest etc. etc.", how come you can make it even deadlier? Oh well, no point in expecting logic from a computer game). I've read the scoring system over and over and I just plain don't understand it. Maybe I'm thick, but I can't make head or tail of these Strategic Loss Factors and On Target % Figures. Still, never mind, just shoot up everything in sight and hope for the best. Seems to work OK, because I get my bonuses, but I'm sure there are all kind of clever wrinkles I'm missing out on. The details is a bit fussy and cluttered, but until I get River Raid for the Spectrum, this'll do fine.

MACHINE: Spectrum
CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Sinc, Full, Curs
FROM: Creative Sparks, £6.95

Flying over occupied islands you have to blast your way through hordes of the enemy to reach and destroy their airfield.

The action is seen from above and comes in two different screens, it is fast and compulsive, although your craft and the white guided missiles can be hard to see on the attack screen.