Slingshot

Sinclair User

Overall 2/10

Tony Dillon 2/10

Label: Power House Author: Steve Cargill Price: £1.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Tony Dillon Oh no, it's another of those games from Alpha Ome... sorry, Power House. What's this one like? Well, if you really want to know, it's really quite simple. Choose where you want to go on the path selection screen (really a lot of different coloured squares) and then fly there. Then enter attack mode and lots of lovely spaceships zoom forward and backwards in glorious Spec-colour and all you have to do is shoot them. If there's a planet in the area, you can land on it, fly along it like Defender and when you get to the end, it blows up. Easy innit? At first you'll probably be pleasantly surprised by the pretty and quite detailed graphics of the ships but then you will be brought down to earth by the gameplay. It plays like a hedgehog plays frogger.

Crash

Presentation 44%

Graphics 40%

Playability 44%

Addictive Qualities 32%

Overall 34%

Mike Dunn 43%

Nick Roberts 29%

Paul Sumner 29%

Producer: The Power House Retail Price: £1.99 Author: Steve Cargill You are alone on a deadly mission: to detect and destroy any planets that stray into your intergalactic path. Your ammunition has been topped up and your breathing apparatus is ready. Everything is set for takeoff. Zooming up into the air, your craft penetrates the earth's atmosphere at a colossal speed. But Earth's enemies, the Cargilbans (subtle reference to the programmer!), are out to stop you -and suddenly a band of their fighters comes into view. As you rush into battle, one driving thought runs through your head: 'ATTACK, ATTACK, REJUVENATE... TRANSFORM.' The Slingshot screen shows the view from a space fighter's cockpit, glittering with multicoloured stars. After choosing a zone, you move amidst the hostile Cargillian fighters, destroying as many as possible. Then the planets come into view, and they too must be blasted; each offers a different number of points. Get them in the sights... but once you've destroyed one planet, don't sit back on your laurels (or your Hardies, for that matter). Get out there - because here comes another. Programmer Steve Cargill's Sir Lancelot was a Smash in CRASH Issue 11, while his Fighting Warrior was reviewed in Issue 22. Both were for Melbourne House. COMMENTS Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair Graphics: simple sprites with reasonable shading, but unimaginative colour and some clash Sound: irritating FX for engine sound, plus a free audio track by H.E.X. after the game Options: 48 scrolling playing areas; two choices of keys

The planet surface screen.