Stunt men are silly sausages, aren't they, viewers? They leap out of huge burning buildings or hang onto the wing of an airplane and constantly deny they're anything like that awful Colt Whatsisface from The Fall Guy. Here's Mark Caswell who gets the scenes rolling with a rousing cry of 'action!'

Code Masters
£2.99

Sky High Stuntman is the second game in Code Masters' Stunt Man series and follows our old chum Super Stuntman around the set of his latest blockbuster film. The game takes place over five levels and has you piloting a range of airborne craft, starting with a helicopter.

The director shouts 'Action!' and the film starts rolling, or rather the scenery begins its vertical scroll. Against you are a range of helicopters, airplanes and ground-based guns, all letting rip with both barrels - and these guys don't fire blanks!

You're allowed up to five takes (lives) to complete a level, but if you lose them all it's end of game (and Super Stuntman's career). Luckily, you don't fire blanks either, so dodge your opponents' fire and give 'em a taste of their own medicine. Points are scored for each enemy destroyed, a large bonus awarded it you kill the big mid-level enemy.

OUTTA SIGHT!

Level two sees you up in a hot air balloon - here you have no control over which direction your craft moves (so pray you don't hit anything!). Instead, control is transferred to a large cursor with which you can aim bombs at the nasty attackers (but don't aim the cursor at yourself or you'll pop the balloon!).

If you survive that, levels three and four are set in a jet fighter and a monoplane respectively. To find out the have to play the game yourself, because I'm still trying to complete level four (!).

The graphics are okay, nothing to shout about but they're colourful and do the job. Gameplay is pretty easy and you should have the game completed in about, oooh, ten goes. I reckon a couple more games and I'll have level four licked and level five nearly cracked. Sky High Stuntman is one of those games that's fun to play but its simple content lets it down.

MARK [58%]

From the spills of being the original Super Stuntman racing about and risking life and limb in a car, we now take to the air. Funny thing is, Sky High Stuntman looks more or less the same. The only difference is that the action is up in the clouds. The object is simply to blow away all the nasty-looking things that come on screen and fire at you. Simplistic fun? I think not, it's all too repetitive, really.
NICK [45%]

CodeMasters
£3.99 cass
Reviewer: Linda Barker

I don't think I'd make a very good stuntman, there's not enough fame and adulation involved. Take Harrison Ford for example, he's massively rich and he didn't even have to jump over a single log. His stunt double, on the other hand, is languishing in obscurity minus a few limbs or so. Nope, I think I'd rather have a stunt double, thank you very much.

Sky High Stuntman is the everyday tale of a bloke (I presume he's male) with a few less brain cells than Timmy Mallett. For a paltry sum of money, this man is willing to risk life and limb just so he can tell all his mates that that's him snogging that chick. None of them will believe him, but life's like that for a stuntman I'm afraid.

TAKE ONE!

Right, you're now a stuntman. Steven Squealburgh (ahem) has put you on his payroll, but he doesn't want to delve too deeply into his wallet, so you'd better be good. If you destroy too much of his costly (yet somehow strangely unrealistic) equipment, then you'll be chucked out at the nearest cardboard Messerschmitt without a brolly.

There are four stunt sequences in all, each one more terrifying than the last. At least, that's what the tape inlay says. Oddly enough, each sequence looks amazingly unterrifying, beneath you the sea looks calm and unruffled and the beach unpolluted and inviting. Mind you, they're probably made of gravel and papier-mache!

Anyway, you're far too busy to be gawping at pretty beach scenes because you've got loads of aeroplances and gun installations to shoot down. First you're in a biplane, then a balloon, then a Phantom and then a helicopter. Pretty skyhigh, whichever way you look at it! The first couple of levels are easy, but the last one is dead 'ard cos the enemy get themselves sorted and fling bullets at you left, right and centre.

The whole game is supposed to look as film-like as possible. What this means that the little screen is surrounded by a scroll of film and there's a little megaphone that yells (if you see what I mean) cut and action. It all pretty spanky really. Your plane (or balloon or chopper) is dead clear, you can't miss the the explosions and the scrolling's nice and smooth too.

I actually got quite into Skyhigh Stuntman. There I was cruising along in my little biplane, demolishing swarms of planes and ships. Old Squealburgh was dead chuffed and gave me lots of lovely encouragement! Thing is, each level's pretty similar and once you've got through one once, you can do it every time. Y'see, the planes, bullets, ships and things follow the same pattern. After a while, it gets a bit dull and you begin to yearn for a nice bit of solid ground. Who knows? if you do your job well, Mr Squealie might recognise your potential and make you a star. Look at Eddie Kidd. On the other hand...

Label: Code Masters
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape, N/A Disk
Reviewer: Alan Dykes

Yet another simulation from CodeMasters! This time it takes the form of an aerial stuntman simulation (aerial not hairyAl. Steve).

You have to fly all-action missions in a variety of aircraft, starting out with a helicopter, moving onto a balloon and graduating to (Top Gun, you lucky devil) winged aircraft.

Sky High is a vertically scrolling shoot em up that's easy to control and fun to play... on some levels. The helicopter and plane levels are straightforward, that's forward, back, left, right, shoot, shoot and shoot again. The second level, where you control a balloon, involves using target crosshairs to pick out enemies and destroying them. The stuntman idea is loosely borne out by including cinematic references which include "cut!" when your aircraft is shot down, "amazing action", when there is some amazing action and your five lives are each a "take".

There's a two player option, although not simultaneous, which is useful for extra practice against a friend (if you have one).

I've always wanted to be a stuntman and although Sky High is really only a mediocre flight sim with a new name, it does have variety and a barrel of fun, but falls far short of a great 'gag'.

STEVE:
The helicopter shoot 'em up scene is satisfying. but moving directly from that to a balloon is not at all that much fun.

GARTH:
Not much to hold my interest. However I really like the Fall Guy if that's any conciliation!