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1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I used to own this, sadly I think it got thrown away when I moved. It's a solid collection. No prizes for guessing Killer Gorilla is a clone of Donkey Kong and a cracking version, Killer Gorilla 2 is Donkey Kong Jr. Commando is a version of the Capcom arcade game, it plays similar to Ikari Warriors and some people might know it as Rambo on consoles; they are all effectively the same. Again really good version. Palace of Magic isn't as far as I know an arcade game, it plays similar to the NES game Zelda II or Prince of Persia, but it is a bit messy as to what you are supposed to do. Arguably the weakest, but still a game I enjoyed at the time.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This was a really big deal, when it was released. Acornsoft pretty much threw the kitchen sink at it, marketing and packaging wise. The computer press duly took the bait and raved about it. The game won all kinds of awards. It was the first (and probably only) major-player video game which actually started life on the Beeb, rather than getting an after-thought port from some other platform. It was a remarkable programming achievement and demonstrated what could really be achieved on the Beeb, despite its oft-criticised lack of memory. So why do I dislike Elite so much ? Maybe it's because I expect to be able to actually get started with a game I've paid an arm and a leg for. The game appeared to demand that you learn how to slot a flying parcel through a rotating letterbox with millimetre accuracy, before you were allowed to discover what you shelled out all that cash for. My vivid recollections of Elite are not of the vast universe it opened up or the complexities of trading which it simulated, but of endlessly crashing into that bloody docking bay. (This rather reminds me of when my wife spent about 40 quid on a copy of Return To Castle Wolfenstein as a present and I couldn't get past the first 4 or 5 locations.) I suppose alarm bells should have been ringing when I opened the Elite manual. Software which comes with a 64-page (!!) manual isn't a game, it's a job of work. Even the novella was only 48 pages long! Any supposed game which needs a "quick reference guide" and a wall chart, because the manual is so fat, has clearly lost the plot. After a long day at work (ironically, writing computer software), I wanted much more instant gratification from my games. Unfortunately the trend to ever more "immersive" gameplay seems to have been one that the games industry has followed ever since. Now, where's my copy of Space Invaders ...

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This game received a lot of column inches and had plenty of marketing effort behind it. No doubt that it was a significant achievement to squeeze in all those pictures, to supplement the basic game. However, it all seemed like so much hype. Essentially, a text adventure, with some nice pictures to punctuate your progress. I don't remember playing this very much at all.

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

One of the best space invader shoot em ups ever to grace the BBC Micro, though not nearly as well known as equivalents from competitors with much fatter marketing budgets, like Superior Software and Program Power. Given its release date of 1983, most original copies were on tape, but here is a rare version on floppy disc. Reflecting the small scale/budget of the publisher, I seem to recall that the floppy disc (pictured) was all you got. No "retail" packaging for the disc version. That said, the contents more than made up for the lack of fancy artwork. I wasted hours on this, back in the mid 80s.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Good version of the classic arcade game. As you would expect it is vastly scaled down, given it is running on a machine which is half the power of the Mega Drive. This version I think has two, maybe three backgrounds for the stages, more limited animation and it runs at a slower pace. Much like the Mega Drive version a cheat is needed to activate the blood and gore, this version has more blood than the SNES version, but plays worse.

On the plus side it was a miracle this was even ported to the Master System and it's a fairly late title, but it sold well. To put it in perspective the Mega CD was out by this time and the Playstation 1 was launched in Japan a year later.

The game plays fairly well and I really enjoyed it when I owned a MS back in the day, I think it features all the characters and to me seemed easier than the other versions, which is a good thing because I am crap at games and the other versions are rock hard. It scores a solid 7 from me, but there is little point playing it now given the Arcade version has been ported perfectly since the PS2 and XBOX days (as part of the Mortal Kombat Deception Premium pack), the Mega Drive\Genesis version is also cheaper to buy for anyone looking for a cart version. For me it still holds nostalgia and I admire the developers Probe (arguably best known for Die Hard Trilogy on the PS1, PC, Saturn) for making a playable one on one fighter for limited hardware.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I'm a huge fan of Sonic. I think it is largely due to nostalgia. Unfortunately "back in the day" I owned a Master System and Gameboy as my consoles, so I was limited to playing Mega Drive, SNES and NES at my friend's houses. Without a doubt the number 1 platformer for me is Super Mario Bros 3 which pushed the NES to its limit. This is probably my second favourite. You can see the level of the skill put into the game as Sonic Clones from the 90s often play like absolute garbage: Bubsy the Bobcat (slippery and annoying to boot), Awesome Possum (plays too fast, messy backgrounds), Socket (just plain weird game mechanics and unlikeable character).

The music is iconic and sticks in your head for days. The sounds for collecting rings or hitting the spikes are as good as anything in Mario. The level design is really good, it plays fast, but you can figure out where everything is after a few playthroughs: where the spikes are, where the hidden boxes are - you can't say the same about Bubsy or Zool which are jumbled messes by comparison.

Classic for me. I think Sonic 2 improved the formula with a two player mode, the character Miles "Tails" Power and better graphics. The boss theme tune was also used in the much loved trance track Wizards of Sonic by Red Jerry and Westbam. For anyone looking for more of the same: Sonic Generations (2011) is great as are the Sonic Advance games and the underrated Sonic Pocket Adventures on the Neo Geo Pocket. I've not played Sonic Mania (2017) so can't comment on that one.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The best RPG/Action/Adventure game ever!! Sorry Zelda and Elder Scrolls fans this one is just too good. Plays surprisingly well on the Switch and is probably the best port so far on the console. A must have for all role playing gamers whether on this console or other platforms.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This has to be in my top 5 of games and the one that brought me back to gaming after one of my regular hiatuses. The music and atmosphere of the game are superb and suck you into the claustrophobic world of Rapture.
It was the music that first attracted me to the game after overhearing my son playing Bioshock.
So if you've not played it what better time in our dystopian world at present enter this one and forget lockdown.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

One of the best games I've ever played. I now own this little gem in three separate formats, PC, PS£ and now PS4.

This pack includes DLC packs of Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn.

Brilliant.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Quite simply the best game I've ever played. It looks brilliant, it plays brilliant, it's thoroughly gripping and the cut scenes, voice acting and storyline are as good as any movie you care to name. The characters are well defined, with proper depth, and if you're not absolutely rooting for them by the end of the story (and I've finished the game, which is very rare, as I hardly ever complete a game) then you've got a heart of stone. Totally immersive game play. So good I actually started again from the beginning once I'd completed it.

It's also a good challenge, most of it can be got through reasonably easily but there are a few parts of the game which took me umpteen attempts to progress past it's a good mix of nice easy bits and some bloody hard bits. But you won't give up... cos otherwise you wouldn't find out what happens next!

Gaming perfection. Eleven out of ten.

A second game is reportedly in the pipeline although quite when it will appear is anyone's guess. There has also been talk of a movie but personally I think that would be a cheap cash-in - and the game is as good as a movie anyway. It has action, it has pathos, it has genuinely emotional moments - I won't spoil it but the end of the opening scene almost genuinely had me reaching for the tissues - it's heartbreaking, and brilliantly done. Powerful stuff, I can't praise this game enough. It's the absolute pinnacle.

Go Ellie!

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The wonderful thing about ZXSpectrum games being fairly easy and cheap to programme, manufacture and distribute is that a game based on dental hygiene can make it onto the shelves before being poo-poo'ed by a marketing department asking 'Are you insane?'

It may not be the best game ever but it's certainly different.

Unlikely to be revamped for PS4 anytime soon....

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Still a hoot to play today and still one of the best racing games ever made. The AI can be very punishing on the higher difficulty levels but that is how Nintendo keep you playing and hoping that things will break your way in the races. The game is a bit unrefined visually by today's standards but it is the gameplay that hooks you into this one and the graphics are adequate but "glitchy" in spots. The Multi-player is another area that this game is excellent and once you've completed the single player challenges you can play friends in what usually turn out to be frantic races full of pleasant surprises and rude shocks. 20 years old and still a good game - a modern masterpiece.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I remember this had a prize you could win if you completed it. Not much chance of that, crazy difficult at later levels. That kind of novelty you would associate with subpar games but this was a unique and frantic game that for sure is in my top 50 ZX Spectrum games. It even had synthesised speech which must have been a first for the Zilog Z80 computers?

Incentive Software were surely underrated, see also Millionaire (strategy game) and Mountains of Ket, the best ZX adventure game (OK after The Hobbit).

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I was one of the ignorant fools who mistakenly called this 3D Deathchase - I'm blaming the cassette artwork.

It may look primitive nowadays but at the time this game was Hi-Adrenaline stuff. Those trees seemed to positively hurtle towards you.

Exciting stuff for it's time, the only problem being that it got a bit samey even with the innovation of day turning into night.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Another game that I loved playing back in the arcade in the mid to late 80s.

I'm reviewing this from distant memory but I recall thinking it was really playable and light hearted. 'Fighting' games got serious pretty quick and strayed into territory I'm not too interested in but this was FUN - It must have been as I kept pumping coins in even though I was totally rubbish at playing it!

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

At the time this game was considered controversial for it's levels of excessive violence. Just look at the screenshot - terrifying!!!!

I suspect the lurid cabinet art was twisting peoples minds.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I don't remember this one and after a bit of research I can see why. Two years after the success of the Star Wars arcade game came this follow up which was merely a modification of the original. Arcade owners had the choice to convert their existing Star Wars cabinets to house this new game at considerable cost. The problem being that the new game is inferior to the old one!

The At-At level is pretty cool but the real problem is the final level. Dodging asteroids is something of an anti-climax and simply can't compete with the previous finale of destroying the Death Star.

With the original Star Wars still doing good business there was little incentive for arcades to convert to this new game (unless they had two machines) making it something of a rarity.

Not a bad game but one destined to forever be compared to it's classic predecessor.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Although it may seem primitive nowadays this game rocked my world in 1983 and I can't imagine ever not being under it's spell. It may be simple but it caught the mood of Star Wars perfectly. An emulator can't really do justice to the reverse joystick control and great sound effects and music booming out of the cabinet.

Although I loved this game I was also a bit rubbish at it. As soon as more than two tie-fighters appeared I would panic.

I would dearly love to play this in an arcade again.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A very important and controversial game. Using new Laserdisc technology this game LOOKED amazing in 1983 and I remember kids crowding round it any time someone was brave enough to waste some money playing it. The game was unreasonably tricky to complete and a joyless task at that.

Visuals 10 vs Gameplay 0.

Thankfully we can now watch a complete walkthrough on Youtube and save our pocket money!

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?