Headbangers Heaven

Crash

Producer: Llamasoft, 48K £4.95 Llamasoft is one of those companies that got famous fast, though looking at this game one wonders why. The sky is raining hammers (makes a from ravening aliens I suppose) and Chico must carry bags of money from one side of the screen to the other under the partial shelter of four blocks which are being eroded by the falling hammers. In between the shelters Chico can nut the hammers for points, but after ten he gets a headache and must then nut a red aspirin hammer. Hammers hitting his body instead of his head lose a life. Getting a money bag across safely restores one shelter. Badly put together and rather pointless.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Producer: Llamasoft, 48K £4.95 Llamasoft is one of those companies that got famous fast, though looking at this game one wonders why. The sky is raining hammers (makes a from ravening aliens I suppose) and Chico must carry bags of money from one side of the screen to the other under the partial shelter of four blocks which are being eroded by the falling hammers. In between the shelters Chico can nut the hammers for points, but after ten he gets a headache and must then nut a red aspirin hammer. Hammers hitting his body instead of his head lose a life. Getting a money bag across safely restores one shelter. Badly put together and rather pointless.

Crash

Producer: Llamasoft, 48K £4.95 Llamasoft is one of those companies that got famous fast, though looking at this game one wonders why. The sky is raining hammers (makes a from ravening aliens I suppose) and Chico must carry bags of money from one side of the screen to the other under the partial shelter of four blocks which are being eroded by the falling hammers. In between the shelters Chico can nut the hammers for points, but after ten he gets a headache and must then nut a red aspirin hammer. Hammers hitting his body instead of his head lose a life. Getting a money bag across safely restores one shelter. Badly put together and rather pointless.

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 2/5

Playability 2/5

Use Of Machine 2/5

Overall Value 2/5

Mike Gerrard 2/5

NAME: Headbanger SYSTEM: 48K Spectrum PRICE: £4.95 (+50p if by mail order) PUBLISHER: Llamasoft, [redacted] FORMAT: Cassette LANGUAGE: Basic with m/code subroutines OTHER VERSIONS: None OUTLETS: Mail order, WH Smith, Menzies and other dealers CASH ON THE NAIL With a game called Headbanger you maybe don't expect anything too subtle, which is just as well as you certainly don't get it. The storyline is different from Space Invaders, but the idea is the same, and the main difference is that here you're actually encouraged to get under the missiles raining down on you and let them smack you on the head. Presumably it's aimed at masochists and those with a mental age of six or under. OBJECTIVES The man with the iron head is Chico - no relation to Donkey Kong's Mario, of course - and you must run him along the bottom of the screen to transport bags of money from right to left. There are four blocks providing shelter from the hammers coming down from heaven, and each bag of cash successfully moved restores one of the blocks. Chico is moved by the 'n' and 'm' keys. FIRST IMPRESSIONS The review copy didn't come with the four-colour insert that is apparently now ready, but in any case the game itself includes the long and allegedly humorous instructions, about which the best that can be said is that you needn't sit through them if you don't want. IN PLAY As Chico runs back and forth he can earn points by nutting the hammers, though he has to be directly under them as a body blow will lose him one of his three lives. He starts to get a headache after ten blows, as who wouldn't, and he must then attempt to nut one of the occasional red hammers, which carry aspirin. He can in fact hit a red hammer at any time, though the longer he leaves it the more points he scores. The hammers come down ever faster, of course, and with the red ones increasingly difficult to pick out you must eventually succumb and ascend to headbangers' heaven for a score. However, long runs are rare because the character is too big and clumsy to manoeuvre through the torrent of tools no matter how nimble-fingered you might be. VERDICT With such a wealth of material available for the Spectrum, it's hard to see why anyone would go out and buy this. You are offered a high-score facility, and your score is graded from Barry Manilow, to Headbangers. Try as I might, and I didn't feel that much incentive, I couldn't get beyond a score of 9,600, which made me a Donny Osmond Class I.