Meganova

Your Sinclair

Overall 34%

Marcus Berkmann 34%

BARGAIN BASEMENT A bumper New Year collection of cheapie rubbish (whoops!) from that king of the skin-flints, Marcus Berkmann, and his preppy pauper (ha ha) Jonathan Davies. MEGANOVA Alternative £2.99 Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann Dinamic shoot-'em-up (in millions of different loads as ever) which has finally appeared in this country on the Alternative label. But don't be deceived by Dinamic's reputation - this isn't up to its usual high standard. All right, so it's hard - but it's also boring. A shoot-em-up of sorts, it's slow, turgid and about as addictive as a bunion. It does though have some splendidly badly written inlay notes. "You enter the caves of Otnirebal, and when you come out an imperial gigaship traps you. Surprise! Your old pals from Drowhar are waiting for you. Be tough and pray whatever you know; the battle will be final" (As translated from the Norwegian by Bengt Bengtsson.)

Crash

Overall 57%

Nick Roberts 57%

A veritable heap of offerings this month! A Budget Bonanza! And here's DJ Nicko to take a spin through the games coming your away for less than a three quid! MEGANOVA - THE WEAPON Alternative Software £2.99 Your quest is a tough one: you are Philipus Sunset and happen to have 'borrowed' a sprocket system from the evil Drowhar Empire when they weren't looking (who thinks up this stuff?). You now have to get the system back to your base in tip top condition with the Drowhars out to get you. You must fight against them in your space ship: only the most courageous can survive this challenge. Basically this is Game Over II with new graphics. Yes folks, it also happens to be programmed by Dinamic who did the Game Over games. If you played Game Over II you'll see what I mean just by looking at the screen shot. The graphics may be similar to other games, but they're well defined, and the parallax scrolling in the background gives a really good effect. Meganova is just a shoot 'em up, and the sprites are quite sluggish at moving along the screen too which spoils the effect. You collect extra power and weapons as you go along. Sound is there but not very impressive. The title tune is irritating and the effects won't blow your mind. Meganova is a cheap alternative (no pun intended) to full price shoot 'em ups but you won't be playing it for long. A decidedly average game.