Octan

Sinclair User

Graphics 80%

Sound 70%

Playability 70%

Lastability 80%

Overall 75%

Jim Douglas 75%

Label: Silverbird Author: Robert F. Gill Price: £1.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Jim Douglas I think there must be an, "Easy to Use Vertical Scrolling Shoot-Out Development System." doing the rounds of the industry at the moment. Well, to tell the truth, ever since Lightforce emerged everyone has been cranking out lookalikes. US Gold had Bedlam, Softek had Xecutor and there were even Budget releases like Zeppelin's Sabotage and Powerama from Powerhouse. The last two share an uncomfortably large number of features with Octan, Firebird's addition to the troupe. As you can see from the pictures, we're talking seriously attractive graphics here. If they were standing in a bar, you'd buy them a drink (God knows, I wonder about you sometimes - GT). The scrolling floor beneath the base-relief hi-tech alien battlecruiser is remarkably pleasing. Not only does it scroll downward doing fantastic imitations of acres of crazy paving, but when you move from side to side, it all moves sideways with you. Oo-ee-oo! Crazy paving gone crazier! Still this is all a bit by-the-by, as even a digitised Picasso (who he? - TD) couldn't save a program with iffy gameplay. Not that Octan has iffy gameplay. Lordy, no! When you get going, there's a definite impression that everything is a little sluggish. It's tricky to get out of the way of the aliens and you can only fire one shot at a time. Pretty soon, though, you'll realise that it's just you that is the slowcoach. Everything else is shifting at a fine pace. The immediate problem is to turn your ship from a passive dustbin into a psychotic killing juggernaut. By bombing the pyramids which litter the alien ship's surface you can make letters appear. Each letter corresponds to a different feature on your ship, which can then be enhanced. You've got to collect three of each letter before anything interesting happens. You can double your laser-fire, drop more bombs or get some more lives. The big problem is that these pyramids are nearly always situated right in front of a gun installation which will fire upon you as soon as you're in range. The aliens are marvellous. Although unbelievably nasty, they actually look quite cute. My favourites are the Starfish shaped things which swarm around in, um, swarms, grinning away and bashing into you. At the end of each level (which is bloody tough to reach, and impossible for me to pass) are two huge fireball spitting baddies - again, nicely defined and thoroughly menacing. Octan is by no means perfect, the controls sometimes feel a bit plodding, even when you've collected your 'speed-up' icon, but that said, it's a supremely polished game with fab graphics. And for £2.99, you can't really go wrong, can you?

Your Sinclair

Overall 7/10

Nat Pryce 7/10

BARGAIN BASEMENT Come on down! The Pryce is right! (Groan - Ed) Once again Nat Pryce single-handedly guides us through the treacherous world of the budget game. OCTAN Silverbird £1.99 Reviewer: Nat Pryce The last demon of Octan, an 'orrible place that's even grottier than Bristol Parkway Station, is giving you a lot of trouble, so you've decided to teach him a lesson he won't forget in a hurry using, as usual (yawn), a huge ship armed to the teeth, or jet intakes rather, with lasers, missiles, shields, nuke blasts and shock waves. You've probably guessed by now that Octan is yet another vertically scrolling monochrome blaster of the build-up-your-weaponry sort. Surprisingly enough (it surprised me anyway) Octan is great fun. The scrolling, graphics, sound, kiddy FX (very important, those) payability and addictiveness are all top notch and the game is very difficult, and tantalisingly frustrating at the same time. It's great fun, and if it was just a teensy bit (a lot actually) more original it would certainly get an eight. As it is, I think it deserves a large, spiky seven.

Crash

Presentation 58%

Graphics 60%

Playability 58%

Addictive Qualities 54%

Overall 51%

Mark Caswell 40%

Phil King 61%

Producer: Silverbird Retail Price: £2.99 Author: Robert Gill, Fred When the demons of Octan were destroyed, everyone rejoiced at the demise of the most cruel and evil rulers the universe had ever known. Unfortunately, one of them escaped destruction, and plans to destroy all sentient life. A brave young pilot is charged with the mission to travel the eight planes of the planet and destroy this evil threat. As your craft journeys over the vertically scrolling landscape, the demon's henchmen maker their presence felt. These are dealt with by a swift jab on the laser button while inanimate obstacles need to be exploded by missiles. Shooting silos reveals lettered icons. When collected, these endow your craft with extra weapons, points and bonus lives. At the end of each level you encounter one of the demon's mammoth servants. Survive to the end of the eighth stage and you meet the Demon of Octan himself. COMMENTS Joysticks: Kempston Graphics: unexceptional monochrome Sound: mostly spot effects Options: definable keyboard

Satisfying, but room for improvement.