Producer: US Gold
Retail Price: £8.99
Author: Paul Houbart, Simon Butler, Dawn Drake

Breakthru is US GOLD's latest arcade conversion involving a mad dash through five different landscapes in a supermobile in order to safeguard world peace.

URGENT ALERT! Your country's super fighter, code named PK 430, has been stolen by the 'other side'for their own dastardly purposes. Naturally your government wants it back, so you have been chosen from many hopefuls to go and get it. The reason you've been selected is because you're the best, so you'd better get on and prove it.

To help you in your mission you've been equipped with "the world's most sophisticated armed vehicle" . Not only can it travel at great speeds, but can also make huge leaps into the air, which is very handy for avoiding any of the many perils in your path.

The objective of the game is to drive 400 miles behind enemy lines to a secret airstrip, and once there retrieve the super fighter. The opposition aren't going to give it up that easily however and they're out in force to stop you. You must negotiate your way through them and blast anything dangerous along the way.

There are five different levels, and each one must be completed before the player can progress to the next. Each of the levels hosts a different array of baddies who must either be blasted or avoided in order to survive. Level one takes place on a mountain road. You have to manoeuvre your vehicle around deadly mine- fields, and groups of soldiers who will try to destroy you with their mortar fire. Added hazards in this section are landfalls, here's where your car's leaping abilities come into their own.

After the Mountains there's the bridge which connects the mountain ranges to the prairie. Unfortunately this bridge has suffered considerably during the combat and large sections have been blown apart. Once again these must be jumped over to avoid destruction. Missiles and armoured fighting vehicles are out in force on the bridge and will rip your craft apart unless you destroy them first.

A desolate prairie is the setting for the third level. Once again the level of defences which you encounter are more difficult and there are also stretches of water which must be crossed somehow! Once through the prairie it's onto the City.

If you manage to complete all these four levels, then it's on to the final stage where your super fighter is being held. Predictably enough this takes place on an airfield, and the opposition are really out to stop you going any further. As well as all their previous tricks, there is also the odd flame thrower to contend with - just in case you get too cocky.

The screen scrolls from left to right. The car can be manoeuvred upwards and downwards, and it can be speeded up if necessary. You have five lives in the game and one of these is lost every time your craft hits (or gets hit by) any of the opposition. Conversely, points are scored for any of the other side who are blasted by you.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z=left, X-right, R-up, D-down, 5-fire, SPACE-jump
Joystick: Kempston, Protek, Interface II
Keyboard play: quite tricky, but no easier than using a joystick
Use of colour quite colourful
Graphics: rather naff sprites
Sound: jolly little tune before the game starts
Skill levels: five
Screens: scrolling play area

Oh dear! What have US Gold done here? Breakthru is an awful game with some awful bugs. I haven't seen the arcade version but this seems to be a very simple Moon Alert type game, with a scrolling landscape and a quite a few obstacles to either avoid or blow up. The keyboard play is very unresponsive and lacks any playable feel. The graphics, however, are very well drawn and feature lots of colour and detailed objects. The sound is poor as there are only a very few spot effects. I can't see many people enjoying this.

Yucky-poo! I didn't really expect anything from Breakthru as original machine was a bit limp, but as always US GOLD gave me less than I expected. The graphics are overall quite messy: the characters are badly drawn and the screen scrolls in characters. The sound is also well below average, there are no tunes and the effects are minimal. On the whole I can't recommend this game at all as there is nothing in it that appeals to me in the slightest.

I'm not too keen on this one, it isn't playable or addictive and the keyboard configuration isn't at all stilted to my tastes, which is unfortunate when considered that most US GOLD games that don't need redefinable keys have them, and vice versa. Graphically, Breakthru is fair, but the colourful scenery is let down by the very poor scrolling and terrible sprites. Though 1 haven't seen or played the arcade version, I'm convinced that it has to be a lot better than this.

US Gold
£7.95

The coin-op conversions are really coming thick and fast in the lead up to Christmas... Breakthru is not, as I thought, a version of that tacky but v. addictive game, Breakout. You know the one, where you have a bat and ball, and you've got to beat the dickens out of the brick wall while trying to break through to the other side... Well, it's not that game, so let's say no more about it. (Shame!)

Indeed, this is the Spectrum version of a coin-op arcade game of the same name. You take the part of a car (toot!). Well, not your family motor, actually, but a sooper dooper armoured car. Golly! Your mission is to drive like a raving maniac across country, deep into enemy territory, to rescue the PK430 from the enemy's evil clutches. What do you mean, you don't care and you've never heard of the PK430? You mean to say you've never heard of this country's revolutionary new fighter, which those devils have stolen? Good grief, where have you been? is it cheap to get there? Where do you buy tickets?

Anyway, you must penetrate the prairies, cities, mountains, airfields and bridges to get to the stronghold deep inside enemy lines. is it a thrill packed race against time? is it the best road racing game you've ever seen in all your born days? No it blimmin' well isn't. Like quite a number of arcade conversions it suffers from shoddy graphics, bad collision detection, and has all the quality of gameplay and excitement you get by watching the testcard. (I quite enjoy watching the testcard, Ed). The scrolling landscape is pretty, I s'pose, but having looked at that, everything else in the game seems really cheap and nasty. Little pin men shoot popguns at your speeding armoured car... and blow it up! You go too far down the screen, you blow up! You drive under something and the terrific 3D effect causes it to hit you even though you're nowhere near it... yep, you blow up! For goodness sake, this could have been a good game, but US Gold forgot to play it before it started production.

Label: US Gold
Price: £8.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Breakthru is based on yet-another-ruddy-arcade-machine which, in turn, appears to have been based on Spy Hunter. Not wholly original, I grant you, but it's still a damned good chase through all sorts of terrain.

The idea of the game is that the most revolutionary fighter, the PK430, has crashed behind enemy lines (doesn't sound particularly revolutionary so far, crashing and all). Anyway, your objective is to drive through all manner of enemy defences in order to reach the plane. Then, well, I'm not sure, as I didn't come particularly close to this stage.

The graphics are pretty nice, scrolling from right to left quite smoothly. The screen is presented side-on, and an attempt at depth doesn't fall as flat as you may expect, as it's possible to move into the screen by pushing up on the joystick.

There seem to be few problems colour-wise, only becoming noticeably bad when leaping over enormous piles of rocks, causing your car to go a rather horrid red.

Obstacles present themselves in a variety of ways. There are little rocks (I think they are rocks) which do no end of damage to your car, men with flame throwers, helicopters, tanks and jeeps. All of these are very dangerous indeed, and will finish you off with amazing ease.

A slightly more disconcerting fact is that the roads along which you drive will sometimes come to a complete halt. Either there is a huge hole plonked right in the middle, or you come across an appallingly large pile of boulders. Your only option is to hit the space bar and fling your super-mobile into the air. This part is a bit ridiculous, but is the only way out of such desperate problems.

You control your car by moving the joystick left and right, for decelerate and accelerate respectively, up and down for in and out of the screen, fire for Fire, and space for jump.

The game comes in tour stages, each depicted on a map, over-viewing the whole game.

As you progress, things become more and more difficult. Holes in the road crop up with more frequency, little men armed to the teeth will fire on you more rapidly, and you generally have a tougher time of everything.

It can get pretty hectic, and the only real snag is the fact that you have to use the keyboard to leap into the air. Otherwise it's great.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: US Gold
PRICE: £8.99

YET another coin-op conversion hits the Spectrum. This is one from the vaults called Breakthru - a sort of Moon Buggy with extra-added violence.

You are in charge of a giant armoured vehicle on a mission to rescue a revolutionary fighter aircraft stolen by the bad guys.

You have to drive this beweaponed bus though five sectors, fighting your way through defenders and natural hazards.

Before you start the game, the screen shows you a map of the area you have to cross. First are the mountains - full of minefields and enemy soldiers. You also have to avoid rockfalls and landslides - as well as flame-thrower tanks hiding in tunnels between the mountains.

Then comes the bridge - more defenders, aided this time by missile firing vehicles. The bridge has been blown up by the defenders to prevent your progress so you'll have to use your vehicle's amazing jumping power to the full. Then comes the wide open spaces of the prairie where ultimately you'll have to find your way over a watery barrier.

The last lap is the city where the enemy forces throw everything at you - make it through the streets and you'll reach your objective - the airfield.

Here you have to leave the safety of the battle wagon and make a run for the stolen jet. Flamethrowers will singe you, bullets will whizz past your ears.

The graphics are colourful - although your battle wagon looks a bit weedy.

Breakthru is a basic shoot 'em up - no more, no less. I'd say it's a bit expensive for what you get. As a budget release it would be brilliant value. But as it stands, I think Breakthru gets a resounding "Hmmmmm!" on the C+VG Gameometer.

Various
U.S. Gold
Arcade
£9.95

Two out of three is not bad. The three in question are the three arcade licence conversions launched this month and the two are those which are worth buying. Xevious and Gauntlet are both high-profile arcade licences which have lived up to, if not exceeded, expectations. Breakthru, on the other hand, was a good arcade game which has not translated well to the home computer.

The aim is to drive your dune buggy through various courses until finally you can reach and destroy the enemy headquarters. To help in your conquest, the buggy is equipped with the ability to jump and shoot, enabling mass destruction to be the order of the day.

As a game, the Spectrum version is, for the machine, a great deal better than the Commodore version. Where the Spectrum version at least plays well, the Commodore version appears to have been rushed, with both graphics and gameplay suffering. The five levels, each displayed as a map on the overview, consist of a mountain section, a bridge, a prairie, a city and, finally, the airfield. What is most frustrating about the game, apart from the inherent problems from the arcade game, is that there is no desire to play. Dying is more of a relief than an annoyance.

Overall, Breakthru is not the arcade game to buy this month. U.S. Gold has two classics in its catalogue but Breakthru is not the third.

US Gold
£8.99

The first of the US Gold coin-op conversions is Data East's Breokthru starring an acrobatic van!

This van is described as the world's most sophisticated armed vehicle that must drive 400 miles across hostile territory to retrieve your county's revolutionary new fighter and restore world peace.

Ahead of you lies four stages in which you must run the gauntlet of flame throwers, helicopters, tanks, jeeps, mines and enemy troops that can take out your sophisticated vehicle with a single shot!

The first stage is a charge through the mountains hurdling rockfalls in a single leap (Yes this van can jump!). Next you've got to cross a broken bridge (more leaping) while battling with missile firing trucks, then across a prairie through a city until finally you breakthru to the airfield when you can run for a plane and a final getaway.

A jumping, shooting, leaping arcade hit.