Human Killing Machine

The Games Machine

Overall 70%

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £8.99, Diskette: £12.99 KWON DOWN, FIVE TO GO IN Take a beat-'em-up trip round six of the world's landmarks, indulge yourself in a little local custom at each venue and become the Human Killing Machine. A tad familiar? HKM: superhero. racist bully-boy or just a plain old rehashed version of Go!'s earlier title Street Fighter? Vicious title for a vicious game which takes Kwon - the lean mean oriental fighting machine on a non-stop tour of Moscow, Amsterdam, Barcelona, a German bar and finally a jaunt in war-torn Beirut. RElying on the same old combat moves as most other one-to-one beat-'em-ups, HKM doesn't offering anything inspiring in the fighting department other than exotic backdrops. There's a Muscovite soldier who deals a nasty blow with his rifle - and his dog's not nice either; in Amsterdam deal with the sadistic nymphette Maria and the Dutch version of Tina Small, Helga. While in Barcelona there's Miguel (first name San y'know) the bull fighter and his pet bull Brutus. Hans and Franz from Germany throw broken beer glasses at you and as for the fanatic in Beirut... fortunately you only have to take them on one at a time. It's a reasonable beat-'em-up but doesn't take the aging genre into any new areas, except for the graphics which are brilliantly detailed, and the animation on the massive sprites is a bit special.

"A rehash of Street Fighter?"

OTHER FORMATS C64 and Amstrad versions are available at standard US Gold prices. 16-bits are available at the new, low price of £14.99; though we recommend you compare it to the 16-bit IK+ (Amiga out now) before parting with your coins. Expect all versions to look and play similarly to Street Fighter.

ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)

Graphics 8/10

Audio 4/10

IQ Factor 2/10

Fun Factor 7/10

Ace Rating 568/1000

Andy Smith 568/1000

US Gold, Spectrum version reviewed, £8.99cs, £12.99dk Kwon is the killing machine in question, but no sub-machine guns and rocket launchers here: this is a beat-em-up in the Street Fighter mould, with large sprites and rounds fought in various capital cities. You start the game in Moscow feeling pretty tough, so it'll take first opponent Igor five knock-downs to defeat you, whereas you only need three to beat him. Allow yourself to get knocked down a couple of times though, and you'll take on the next opponent (a dog called Shepski) in a tired state, meaning you fight on equal terms. Just manage to scrape through the round and you're in a weak position to take on the next opponent, which is in Amsterdam outside a Nachtclub, slugging it out with an irate woman called Maria. If you think she's tough, wait till you meet Helga! As well as the usual moves available with or without the fire button pressed, some of the attacking ploys are rather more spectacular than average. Graphics are good (especially the backgrounds) and animation and gameplay are fine, but it's not original stuff and is probably one for the real beat-em-up hard core.

Spectrum - Human Killing Machine.

Your Sinclair

Graphics 9/10

Playability 6/10

Value For Money 8/10

Addictiveness 7/10

Overall 7/10

Sean Kelly 7/10

US Gold £9.99/£14.99 Reviewer: Sean Kelly Gosh! What a fantastically original idea! Beat people up against a variety of scenic backdrops. What do you mean, you've seen games like that before! I haven't. Honest. No, really, I mean it. Oh, alright then, I have. And Human Killing Machine is the latest beat 'em up in a long line, so what does US Gold think is so special about this one that merits its release? The idea is to bash up a load of Johnny Foreigners on their native soil, or in kinder terms, to 'stamp your supremacy over a multitude of opponents' as it says in the inlay. Glasnost hasn't reached US Gold yet apparently, as you begin your headbutting holiday in Russia, amongst the sacred Temples of Moscow facing Igor, a commie soldier with a huge sword. Once you've well and truly pummelled him, his dog Shep-ski, attacks you. Well, I say dog, it looked more like a sheep to be honest. The first thing you realise when playing Human Killing Machine is that your opponent is rarely intelligent. Should you move your man to the opposite end of the screen from the enemy, he will continue to bash away at thin air, whilst you build up your strength again. Worranirriot! But back to the combat zone. Having done your bit for the cold war, you head off to Amsterdam to take on a couple of girlies. (Oo-er!) The first one's called Maria, and looking at her closely. I wouldn't be surprised if her last name was Whittaker! Anyway, she spends a lot of her time leaping around and attempting to re-arrange your face with her boot, but is, in fact, fairly easy to beat. I was feeling smug at this point, sailing through the game, when Helga appeared. She's the sort of woman Les Dawson makes jokes about. Built like a sumo wrestler, and making Cyril Smith look positively anorexic, I lasted about ten seconds against her each time I played. Possibly because of the memory used for the excellent background graphics and big - nay, hooge - sprites, the range of moves available in battle seemed relatively limited. It was, however, still fairly easy to beat opponents by forcing them to one end of the playing area and continually hitting them with the same move. Whether it would be so easy on the later stages I'm not sure, but it did distract considerably from the playability of the early stages.

Across the aqua to awesome amazing Amsterdam, with it's naughty nedge nedge nightclubs and luscious lecherous lovely ladies.

Finally to be bombed battled blown-up Beirut, with it's terrible titanic trouble making terrorists, who are aiming to beat the shivering, smelly,... (That's enough of that, Ed)

Travel to the exciting electrifying extraordinary east, where Moscows' magnificent marvellous multistorey Temples await.

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Crash

Presentation 70%

Graphics 79%

Sound 61%

Playability 68%

Addictive Qualities 73%

Overall 73%

Danielle Woodyatt 99.9%

Phil King 69%

Judith not-very charming Producer: US Gold Exchange Rate: £8.99 cass, £12.99 disk Author: Tiertex And to think how overjoyed I was when I discovered I'd won a round-the-world trip on Trick Or Treat. The trip of a lifetime which has turned into a nightmare... First stop was the beautiful city of Moscow. There I was, admiring the Kremlin when a huge, Russian soldier hit me with his rifle. Well I wasn't going to stand for that, was I? So I swiftly kicked him in the Gulags and finished him off with a flying chop - my black beet in karate sometimes comes in useful! I swiftly moved on to Red Square where I was just eating my pickled cabbage butties when my peace was disturbed yet again, this time by a vicious mutt. His dog tag told me his name was Shepski, but John Noakeski was nowhere to be seen. Anyway, I thought I'd better give the dog some Barbara Woodhouse-style training. So I kicked and punched him until he responded to my 'down' command - permanently. After being deported, I arrived in Amsterdam. Looking for a bit of culture, I ventured into the famous red light district. Here, I met a gorgeous young female by the name of Maria. This is more like it, I thought. But alas she was into sadism, jumping around, trying to kick the living daylights out of me. My troubles still weren't over after I'd seen off her advances. Blubberguts Helga decided to have her wicked way with me, but I managed to escape to Barcelona. I was relaxing at a local bullfight when, you guessed it, Miguel the Toreador, took a disliking to me. Worse still, his prize bull Brutus charged at me- he obviously liked my red shirt. By contrast, Germany seemed a tranquil place, until beer-swilling Hans and Franz the glass-throwing waiter spoiled everything. And what better place to go for a quiet time than the peaceful city of Beirut?! A fanatic Arab and another huge hulk weren't taking any prisoners for hostages). So would I advise you to take such an exhausting trip? Well, the scenery's really beautiful and the large characters are well drawn and animated. But beating seven bells out of the natives does become a mite tiresome and repetitive. Judith Chalmers never has these problems. Wish you were here? Well, it's a fair old beat-'em-up but nothing spectacularly new. PHIL 69% THE ESSENTIALS Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair Graphics: detailed backgrounds and well-drawn, large sprites Sound: usual biffing effects

CRASH's newest, and most glamorous reviewers thinks this is 'the best game ever'.

Sinclair User

Graphics 82%

Sound 65%

Playability 80%

Lastability 78%

Overall 78%

Graham Taylor 78%

Label: US Gold Author: Tiertex Price: £8.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Graham Taylor Human Killing Machine - a name to raise questions in the Houses of Parliament. The follow up to Streetfighter is just as violent as you'd expect and just as entertaining. You could complain that it isn't really much different to the original, but who cares really? It's well executed and looks fine. The same idea as before: kicky kicky against a variety of people. Visit five exotic locations: Moscow, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Germany and Beirut and beat up the locals. Each city's representative uses a certain fighting style that will test many skills. You'll need to mix punches and leg sweeps with kicks and somersaults and sometimes, just running away will help you survive. First up on your international tour of violence is Russian hard man called Igor. He thumps you with his rifle and is, considering this is the first level amazingly difficult to beat. Still he's not that agile - certainly not as agile as his trusty dog Shepski (aaargghh) which leaps at your viciously but isn't immune to a little boot treatment. Now it's on to Amsterdam (isn't this just like the Travel Show?) and the lovely Maria. Maria is agile and leaps about a lot. Maria has a friend called Helga who is not so agile but punches people a lot. A bit like one of the more female members of the SU editorial team actually (who's that then - Jim? - AS). On then to Spain with Miguel who does dangerous things with his cane. After that it's a bull, a comedy German, an arab and a giant. A cliche from almost every part of the world, in fact... Backgrounds are static but detailed, but since the whole thing is in black and white this is the least you'd expect. Main graphics are nicely animated with slick arm and leg movements - maybe the best I've seen in this sort of game. Even the animals which are intrinsically harder to animate are pretty successful. OK there isn't anything new here but if you lurved Streetfighter you'll almost certainly lurve this. The graphics may even be slightly better and some of the moves are different. My only criticism is that maybe the first level of the game is too difficult. Still if it'll ensure some credibility attaches to cracking all five levels. With a dearth of decent software releases this looks like being one of the few worthwhile games we're likely to see for some while.

HINTS AND TIPS Watch out for Igor the Russian soldier. His fighting style includes vicious blows with his rifle. To defeat try to get him in the corner and finish him off with low sweeping kicks to the belly. Shepski (great gag) the dog is Igor's trusty hound. Again low sweeping kicks are the way to finish him. Maria is very quick with a large number of moves. She gets out of trouble by leaping about and comes with a very effective kick. You lose energy fast. The only solution - a lot of front kicks mixed with low sweeping slides. Helga - watch out for her punch. You can lose half your energy in one go.