Psycho Pigs U.X.B.

Your Sinclair

Graphics 8/10

Playability 7/10

Value For Money 8/10

Addictiveness 8/10

Overall 8/10

Duncan MacDonald 8/10

US Gold £8.99 Reviewer: Duncan MacDonald If you were paying attention you probably saw Phil's mega scoop preview in the June ish. If you weren't then you deserve a slap on the trotter (slap, squeal). Anyway, there's some good news: the game is now out! Some more good news is that I'm going to try to review it without resorting to the use of countless 'piggy puns.' I wonder if I'll succeed? Here goes (chops away). As Phil divulged, Psycho Pig is a coin-op conversion of a Jaleco arcade machine called Pigs And Bombers which hasn't actually been imported into this country, so you probably won't have seen it. As you may have gathered the game is based on the zany antics of everybody's favourite farmyard chums. Yes, pigs. And in this case the pigs are armed and extremely dangerous. Let's have a butchers (groan). After a brief introductory parade of your fellow constestants, the playing area is revealed and your pig enters from screen left. Also on screen are your porky opponents and loads of bombs with numbers on them. The referee blows his (pig and) whistle and spammo - the game is on. Moving at the speed of ham (quickly), your opponents zoom about the screen, pick up bombs, zoom about the screen a bit more and then eject their explosive payloads - quite often in your direction. You have to do much the same thing; the object being to turn them into crackling while dodging about and saving your own bacon. The bombs, when thrown, travel a half screenish distance before coming to rest. If they hit a pig before coming to rest, they explode - taking out anyone in their immediate vicinity. If they hit a wall they bounce back - following Newton's laws. The action is pretty frantic, but a lot of bombs do tend to come to rest, and this is where the numbers embellished on them (remember?) come into play. On leaving a pig's trotters a bomb will begin to count down towards zero. The seconds tick away visually until at about three seconds (and counting) the bomb will begin to flash. Guess where it isn't a good idea to be standing? (Next to the bomb? An incredibly astute reader) Yes, that's right - unless you want to pop your cork (or, indeed, cop your pork). "Psycho Pig is a porker of a corker." As you progress up the levels things get, as you might expect, a lot trickier - the initial countdown number on the bombs get smaller, some of the bombs start counting down without even being picked up and the pigs get harder to kill - requiring more direct hits. Occasionally a deceased opponent will leave behind a little icon. Helpful little chaps, these, bestowing you with extra powers; throw further, blast protection suit, wider explosion and run faster to name but four. Every so often, between the levels, there is a sub-game: a section where you can get to fatten up your score. For about one minute pigs will pop their heads up out of holes in the ground. What you have to do is run around planting kisses on their gobs before they pop back down again. The more tongue sarnies you deliver, the more points you get. The graphics are animated nicely. and there's no colour clash (largely because there's no colour - but this is the kind of game where different coloured sprites would cause horrendous problems). In the sound department it's just spot effects on 48K, but on 128K there's a continuous tune (sort of an Irish jig stroke hillbilly foot stomper). Oh, and by the way, there's a simultaneous two-player option, so you can throw bombs at your best friend as well. All in all, Psycho Pigs UXB is a porker of a corker. As addictive as bacon and twice as sausagey - especially on 128K. Anyway - how did I do in the 'not making any awful piggy-pun stakes?' (not very well. Ed). Oh.

See that little icon on the bottom right? Picking it up will enable you to hurl your bombs just that little bit further - frying tonight!!

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

The Games Machine

Overall 52%

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £8.99, Diskette: £14.99 LIKE A RIND-BLOWN SOW PLOY The swine starring in Psycho Pigs UXB make Animal Farm's tyrannical Napoleon look a total boar - these pigs are really out to bring home the bacon. The game is licensed from the Jaleco coin-op, Pigs And Bombers and renamed by US Gold staff following a memo sent round requesting an apt title. It was converted by Software Creations (Bubble Bobble and Bionic Commando). fame. In an intergalactic pig-sty the toughest, meanest porkers are gathered together to once and for all sort out which of them is the Psycho Pig of the millenium. Hopefully it will be you or a friend - Psycho Pigs can be played solo or by two players simultaneously. DICING WITH PORK The arena is set on one screen and before play commences opposing pigs and bombs are positioned. Each bomb has a different fuse length (ranging from five to 20 seconds). Your objective is simple - pick up a UXB (UneXploded Bomb) and lob it at an opponent. Bombs hitting pigs explode them, sending your targets to that great sty in the sky. However, should one miss, the timer continues to counts down to zero and then explodes, taking the life of any nearby pig. Killing off an adversary rewards you with an icon to give your pig additional power, speed, stun or a protective coat. After every third screen, there's a bonus round. From 16 holes up pop sows and your pig must kiss as many as possible to rack up a score. You carry on kissing and killing until all your three lives are lost. A credit feature enables you to continue a game from the screen on which you died. The action is incredibly silly, and for that reason quite captivating, making a welcome change from serious simulations and hard-core shoot-'em-ups.

Although not finished for the Commodore 64/128 at the time of going to press, we thought you might like to see what it looks like anyway.

Bombing around and making a pig of yourself is all it takes to win in this game - Spectrum screen.

"The action is incredibly silly, and for that reason quite captivating"

OTHER FORMATS To be released shortly on Commodore 64/128 and Amstrad CPC, both £9.99 cass, £14.99 disk.

Sinclair User

Graphics 58%

Sound 65%

Playability 65%

Lastability 40%

Overall 59%

Chris Jenkins 59%

Label: US Gold Author: Software Creations Price: £8.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Chris Jenkins You can't say, "Psycho Pig is like Maniac Corpse Munchers, with a bit of Space Vegetables thrown in," 'cos it's a brand new format; whether it's a good one is another question. Converted from a little-seen Jaleco coin-op called Mr Pig, or Pigs and Bombs or something, Psycho Pig UXB is a non-stop epic of porcine pulverisation. Yes, the idea is to smash those swine, and the sausages really start flying from the first screen. Although the backgrounds are resolutely dull - they just change colour from level to level - there's a kind of depth effect which gives a 3-D impression (but no more than an impression) as you move around the screen. The screen's full of bombs and pigs. The aim is to use the bombs to blow up the pigs, and avoid being blown to bits of bacon yourself. You get lots of lives to start with (you'll need them) and the graphics and animation are cute, though not unusually clever (no use of colour, for a start). Before you start each round, you're treated to a pig parade in which you're shown all the enemies you have to face on the next level. Blackie is described as "grim", Reddie as "obstinate" and so on, but since you can't tell one from another at the game's playing (and they all act the same anyway), what's the point? On to the game itself. As the timer ticks away, you have to zoom around picking up bombs. Each bomb has a timer; picking it up activates the timer, which ticks away until you throw the bomb. Hang on to it too long and you'll be reduced to chipolatas as you fly gracefully across the screen. If you manage to throw the bomb in time, it will explode on contact with any of your bomb-throwing opponents. If you miss, though, the bomb will come to rest, and can be picked up again. Various bonus items can be picked up. Tonic gives you a longer throw; rice balls allow you to run faster; gas capsules can put some enemies to sleep; some objects score you bonus points or lives, and the protective suit turns you into a little armoured piggy, resistant to one direct hit. If your reactions are fast enough, you can even duck under flying bombs (with trotters over eyes). On bonus levels, you have to dash around a circle of pig-pits, kissing other piggies on the snout. On subsequent levels, you meet faster moving, heavily armoured pigs, bouncing bombs and shorter fuses. Basically, opinion in the jolly old office was sharply divided. Tony "Megadeath" Dillon liked the Brechtian juxtaposition of cuteness and violence. Jim "Sid the Sexist" Douglas saw Bergmanesque irony in the underlying themes. (Wah? Noone asked me - TH). I thought it was good for a quick porking, but I wouldn't want to be stranded on a desert island with it. Nice try then but I think the predicted interest curve would plummet fairly sharply after the first couple of bashes.

Crash

Presentation 70%

Graphics 50%

Playability 69%

Addictive Qualities 71%

Overall 70%

Kati Hamza 75%

Nick Roberts 70%

Paul Sumner 50%

Producer: US Gold Retail Price: £8.99 cassette, £12.99 disk Author: Software Creations from the Jaleco Pigs And Bombers coin-op The crowds are cheering, the players walk out on to the screen, the whistle goes and, amidst squeals of snuffling excitement, the porkiest match of the season is about to begin! The basic rules of this porcine game are taken from the coin-op, Pigs and Bombers, yet to be released in the arcades. One or two players join a group of intrepid piglets on a playing area marked out by a series of numbered, black time bombs. When the referee blows his whistle, all the pigs attempt to pick up the bombs and throw them at each other. Once dispatched, a bomb begins its countdown to explosion. Any pigs in the immediate vicinity of the blast die a sudden, untimely death. (Unlike their opponents, players have four chances to survive a fatal blast.) Particularly accurate or amorous pigs are in with an advantage. A direct hit kills an opponent immediately: stealing up on unsuspecting piglets to give them a kiss embarrasses them into a useful fit of momentary disorientation. Different pigs react differently to being kissed or attacked. Before play commences the program gives a run-down of your opponents, including their name and characteristics. Metal pigs are particularly hard to defeat and require two or three hits before they blow up. Some pigs leave behind bonus icons when they explode. Collecting these can increase throwing power, gas other pigs (while providing you with a useful gas mask) or boost running ability. Other extras include a blast suit (protection against one direct hit), smart bombs (to clear the whole screen) and extra carrying power. Play is divided into a series of rounds interspersed with a bonus level. Pigs pop up from craters in the ground inviting you to kiss them before they shyly pop down again. Kiss as many pigs as possible to see your bonus rating and your status as porky psycho rise. COMMENTS Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair Graphics: porky characters with no backgrounds Sound: good of country barn dance music on the 128K playing throughout the game Options: continue play option when dead, definable keys