Producer: Mastertronic
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £1.99
Language: Machine code
Author: M.J. Child

It will not escape your notice that the name KP Skips is plastered all over the inlay and even the game, it's all part of a promotional tie up between said KP and Mastertronic. Clumsy Colin is the star of the KP Skips promotional campaign, has stepped off the front of a Skips bag to mount his Action Bike for the duration of this game.

Colin has a friend called Marti who needs to be taken to the local spaceport. A spaceport may seem a little out of place but it seems that Colin is having a bit of a dream. In this dream he must find Marti, but at 8 O'clock he will wake up to the bitter clanging of his alarm clock. Marti must be found before Colin wakes up but Colin's first task is to get some extra equipment together. Problems. First, he needs extra equipment if he is to find his friend you know the sort of thing, a periscope for example. His motorbike will be very useful but alas it also needs add ons. Colin must collect these extras from his friends to improve the bike's performance. The more auxiliary equipment he has the easier the task becomes.

An example perhaps? This particular town has a great many oil spills, there are mini oil slicks everywhere. If Colin's bike runs into one then he is going to spend a lot of time spinning and generally falling about. The answer, of course, is a better set of tyres. Out of the 150 houses in the town only 50 contain anything of value. When you think you have found a useful house you can enter it and, from the from the birds eye view on the screen, examine its contents. Your progress is frustrated by people not being in when you visit, or if they are in they may tempt you with a cup of tea. If you stay you are wasting valuable time.

Out on the streets, life is fraught with dangers, the worst being the other traffic. When you collide with another vehicle this will lessen the amount of time left for sleep and if you crash too often, Colin will wake up and that will be that.

Apart from the crash damage you must keep an eye on your fuel. The amount you have is shown on screen, and you can top up your tank from the garages in the town. Scattered about the streets there are packets of Skips for you to pick up, each one gains you a point. A record of the score and high score is kept and presented above the amount of sleep time remaining.

COMMENTS

Control keys: N/M left/right, A/Z accelerate/decelerate, SPACE to change gear
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Fuller, Cursor
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: below average
Sound: very limited
Skill levels: one
Lives: one
Screens: scrolling

Action Biker has inter-game pauses that are far too long. The game itself is pretty decent and scores well for value for money, While it was playable I can't say that I found it addictive. I was also disappointed with both the sound and the degree of control one had over the bike. It was really very difficult to change directions at junctions, for instance.

Action Biker seems to following along with the trend for arcade/adventure games. I am not over keen on the presentation of the screen, a lot of space has been wasted. The sound was annoying after only a short time. Has the potential for being a good game but does not quite make the grade.

I don't like this game at all. I find it very hard to play and unrewarding to boot. The graphics are poor by Mastertronic standards: there's a lot of flicker, no smooth movement and characters seem quite able to vanish for a while. The other vehicles made the game very frustrating. Before you even get a chance to move from home you are attacked and lose sleep points. I found it very hard to find and enter a house, mostly because the instructions that came with the game are so vague.

Dougie: Action Bike sports three (count 'em) loading screens, one of which is an uninspired advert for a packet of brandname 'crispy corn fries'. So, having been brainwashed into lashing out on a packet of said fries, I sat down to see if the game was as good.

Clumsy Colin, our hero on a bike, has to seek out his mate Marti in one of 150 houses on a very colourful housing estate. A feeble on-screen speedometer registers how fast you drive around the lanes, but what with oil all over the road, other vehicles smashing into you, and tight corners every time you look up, there's no chance of reaching high speeds.

Searching a house, which is depicted in a psuedo-3D plan view, is pretty fruitless - but you do occasionally come across some 'go-faster' accessory for Clumsy Colin's bike, such as some headlamps or special wheels.

On-screen graphics are pretty jerky, and the scrolling leaves a lot to be desired. Not one that I could recommend. 3/10

Ross: OK, so it's cheap but that doesn't have to mean nasty all the time. It'll keep you occupied as long as it takes to eat a bag of crisps. 2/10

Rick: So, this is what our very own action biker, Willis is up to now he's left Joystick Jury! But no, he would've picked a game with more class. 3/10

Publisher: Mastertronic
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston. Sinclair, Cursor, Fuller

When a budget software house gets into bed with a snack food manufacturer the consequences are likely to be pretty vile.

Mastertronic and KP have teamed up to promote a stunningly boring little number featuring Clumsy Colin, star of KP Skips packets.

The mindless storyline has somnambulist biker Colin scouring the town for his lost mate Marti. There are 150 houses; some he can't enter, some he can. Some have useful items, others don't.

The streets are liberally sprinkled with oil slicks and packets of KP Skips - the latter to be eaten, not avoided. Off the map is a dark region which Colin can only enter with a headlamp.

Why Colin is asleep is a mystery. The programmer was, too, by the looks of things. Too many collisions and Colin wakes up. You might wake up, too, and wonder why you're playing this jerky, flickery mess.

Following hot on the heels of Elite's dreadful Dunlop promotion, 911TS, Action Biker signifies a depressing trend to link grotty software with expensive advertising campaigns. Let's kill this off instantly by refusing to buy such garbage.

Software like this gives junk food a bad name.

PRICE: £1.99

In an unusual tie-in, Mastertronic have joined up with KP Skips to produce Clumsy Colin Action Biker. The game will be advertised on twelve million packets of KP Skips this summer.

As Clumsy Colin you must find your friend Marti and take him to the spaceport. This involves searching up to 150 houses for the items you need.

You steer Colin around the steadily scrolling screen on his motorbike, avoiding hazards such as other bikes and cars and patches of oil. Some houses cannot be visited until their residents get out of bed, in others you will be cornered and force-fed tea as time ticks by.

Control of Colin is difficult, and persuading him to into a house, even if the curtains are drawn is no mean feat. Driving backwards and forwards outside a house trying to stop and dismount lead to collisions with other traffic which can lead to the fatal consequences of waking you up.

Clumsy Colin bears a distinct resemblance to Trashman from New Generation. You move around town, call at houses, keep your strength up by eating and have to keep your eye on the clock. Clumsy Colin loses out due to the small playing area and the difficulty of the controls.

Saturation marketing will probably guarantee Clumsy Colin a wide audience, but it is undeserved. Produced for the 48K Spectrum by Mastertronic, 54 George Street, London W1.

Mastertronic
£1.99

In conjunction with a well known snack manufacturer the character of Clumsy Colin is brought to the computer screen Using a split graphics and text window you have to ride around town, find Marti and take him to the Spaceport. Control is UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT by keys AZNM plus space to enter a house.

Graphics are OK, movement and animation is fair and the action fast and furious. High scores are kept but no hall of fame. This is a fairly average game which gave me a few interesting moments but no real desire to go back to it again. I know how game players vary in what they like and many of you will enjoy this game, so I would simply suggest you try it out at your local computer store and make up your own mind. It didn't do a lot for me.