The Hit Squad

Your Sinclair

Overall 7/10

Marcus Berkmann 7/10

BARGAIN BASEMENT Chirpy, chirpy, cheap, cheap, chirpy, chirpy, cheap, cheap, chirpy, chirpy, cheap, cheap, BLAM! Nuff of that it's time for another trip to Cheapsville, with Marcus "mothballs-in-the-wallet" Berkmann! THE HIT SQUAD Code Masters £2.99 Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann Yes, I know what you're wondering. Not whether it's any good or not, not even whether it's got 'NEW RELEASE' plastered all over the cover as usual (it has), but what Diddy David Darling has to say about his own game. So I quote, "Technically brilliant, ultra-fast, infuriatingly addictive, MEGA blat 'em up! WICKED!" Nothing like a bit of solid unbiased criticism there - indeed, there's nothing like solid unbiased criticism in the wonderful world of Code Masters. Now - do you want to know what the game's really like? Actually - and as usual it pains me to say this - it's not bad at all. The Hit Squad is a neat, fast, multi-screen shoot 'em up with colourful, intentionally obtrusive graphics and massive sprites. I say "intentionally obtrusive" because your character often has to walk behind them, which means that you can't see a thing and can be easily harmed by the marauding nasties. The idea is to collect a teleport ticket on the 12 levels which will enable you to get to the next level, while collecting any other goodies that happen to be lying around. It's called The Hit Squad because you have a choice of four people to be, each of whom has different weapons (when they pick up enough weapon tokens). The four are nicely represented by a digitised pic before the game begins. All very well, and it's a nice variation on a million other games, but sadly it's no more than that. As with most later Code Masters games you're swiftly seduced by splendid graphics - far better thought out and more Spectrummy than, indeed, Rygar - but the gameplay does pall after a while. Still, this game has one enormous advantage over other recent Code Master titles - no pix of the ghastly Darling brothers. If only for that, this game gets my vote.

Sinclair User

Graphics 80%

Sound 70%

Playability 88%

Lastability 89%

Overall 87%

Chris Jenkins 87%

Label: Codemasters Author: Binary Design Price: £2.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Chris Jenkins Say what you like about Codemasters (we do, we do), they come up with some real rip-snorters sometimes, and this is one of them. In case you're not used to having your rip snorted, let me explain the experience to you; it involves lots of zippy graphics, non-stop action, joystick-pumping excitement, and not spending too much money. Hit Squad is a fairly standard arcade-adventure with loads of levels and loads of flip screens. Set in a shattered Los Angeles of the year 2125, it follows the adventures of four valiant streetfighters in the their attempt to hunt down and eliminate a criminal warlord. Before starting the game you get to choose which character you play; pouty vixtress Xena, sneaky Stak, brainbox Acce or wiru Zara. The digitised pictures on the title screen look more like Kev, Shaz, Daz and Trace from MacDonald's but there you are. The backgrounds for the twelve levels are extremely good; ruined tube systems, complex pipeways, broken vending machines, streetlamps, causeways and piles of packing cases overrun by plantlife. Part of the fun is figuring out how to get safely from one side of the screen to the other, avoiding pitfalls and using objects to reach higher and higher. You have to move fast, too, because the screens are packed with 'orrible monsters; coiling springs, hammers, demons and the like. They come boiling out of air vents, and have to be despatched with a single shot to stop them draining your energy, shown at the top of the screen. You start off with a simple hand-gun, and by finding W tokens you can upgrade to altogether sexier weapons such as the Wave, Burst and Bozuka. These fire in different directions and with different powers, but all basically allow you to clear out the scummies faster and better. You also have to find a teleporter token to complete each level. These are often tucked away at the top of the screen, so you have to fight off the baddies as you climb, then find the teleport booth and enter it to be transported to the next level. The sound effects are find and the animation extremely fast and smooth. What's strange is that each individual level seems to be over very quickly; once you've learned where the telporter and token are located in Level One, for instance, you can complete it in about ten seconds. No doubt later levels get more complex; I eventually got stuck when I failed to find the teleport on one level. Choosing different characters doesn't make much difference to the way the game plays, so it isn't exactly a "penetrate the criminal warlord's secret hideaway-simulator", but it's so fast and bangy-bangy that you won't have time to worry about all that. Just for once, the little Darlings' wild claims on the package - "technically brilliant, ultra fast, infuriatingly addictive, mega blast-'em-up!" - aren't that far from the truth. But then, they didn't write it. Binary Design did. Teehe.

Crash

Overall 70%

BUDGET BUREAU £1.99 A mixed bunch of new budget games arrived from Silverbird this month, of which the most original is Pasteman Pat (65%). In this devious picture puzzle game, Pat Splatt has to use his paste brush to assemble a large wall poster from the squares which Nasty Norville has jumbled up (they resemble an SU poster!). It sounds easy enough, but on the most difficult levels you're likely to get a headache sorting dozens of small squares, while inaccurate brushwork by the hero causes frustration. Add to this the extra problems caused by a time limit and the objects thrown by Norville's henchmen (they knock Pat off his ladder!) and you have one challenging game. But if you're a wallpapering fan, this is your game. Also splashing down from Silverbird is Turbo Boat Simulator (32%), a nautical (but not very nice) shoot-'em-up. Lost in enemy territory, your boat patrols horizontally-scrolling waterways, searching for map parts dropped by allied planes (why can't the pillocks drop a whole map?!). Play simply involves avoiding and shooting enemy submarines and missiles until you find all the map pieces to send you to the next level. Grotty monochromatic graphics don't give much incentive to play on in a game about as exciting as squashed hedgehog racing. Its best feature is definitely the 128K title tune. Skateboard Joust (30%) is another disappointing Silverbird effort, featuring very primitive graphics and minimal sound. Gameplay is reminiscent of the ancient jousting game, Ostron. But here you have a hovering skateboard and must destroy opponents by jumping up to let your board fly into them! The trendy sport of skateboarding has been over-used of late, and this off-beat implementation provides little excitement. Even Nick 'rad lad' Roberts quickly lost interest (but not his cool). Just as dull is Players' unoriginal beat-'em-up, Street Gang (24%). Strolling through eight New York streets, you are attacked by all manner of punks and thugs, some of them wielding machine guns. The bad news is that despite the presence of many foes, progress is surprisingly easy. This is especially so when you discover that by continuously jumping to the right, completion of all eight levels is a mere formality. This amazing feature helps to make Street Gang about as eventful as a monks' wife-swapping party. £2.99 'Who dares wins' is Code Masters' favourite motto. After all, they've dared to sell some pretty dire software at times, yet made a fortune in the process. True to their adventurous spirit, they've come up with SAS Combat Simulator (71%) (neat title, lads!). The good news is that this is one of their better releases. Most of the action is depicted by some decent overhead-view graphics, with your little soldier shooting and grenading swarming enemies. Starting on foot, he can find an armoured jeep and a tank to drive while he blasts or runs over enemy soldiers, and blows even trains to smithereens. After reaching the end of a stage, play switches to a side-view hand-to-hand combat section, with yet more soldiers for the violent hero to punch. Unfortunately this section is both repetitive and irritating as near-perfect timing is needed to dispatch countless foes. Even so, SAS Combat Simulator is a challenging shoot-'em-up with plenty of content. But there are some places even the SAS would fear to tread. The murky depths of the Atlantic are home for many a deadly shark, and also the setting for Titanic (45%) from Kixx. To reach the famous shipwreck, your diver must negotiate a network of underwater caves infested with a variety of vicious sea creatures. Annoyingly, running out of oxygen sends the diver right back to the start, although I can't understand how he'd survive anyway - the water pressure at such depths would be enough to squash him flat! Nevertheless, survive he does to witness primitive graphics and gameplay inferior to Durell's ancient Scuba Dive. Cartographers will no doubt enjoy exploring and mapping the large cave system, but I found the whole exercise rather dull. Set in the equally dangerous world of the Roman Empire, Kixx's Colosseum (70%) is all about chariot racing. But this isn't exactly a sport to take up for health reasons. The drivers are equipped with weapons, and the winner is the sole survivor at the end of the race! As Benurio, wrongly-accused of treason (you were on holiday at the time), you must prove your innocence by winning a chariot race (this is almost as strange as British justice!). Racing round the oval track, obstacles must be avoided, while you hack away at other drivers with your axe. If a driver is killed, you take his weapon even if it is less powerful than your present one. The action is fast and furious, albeit very repetitive. Although the sprites are simple, the track is fast-scrolling, and the perspective for the bends is ingenious: the viewpoint follows the chariot round. Despite a very simple concept, Colosseum is surprisingly addictive. But it's back to the future for The Hit Squad (70%) from Code Masters. In post-apocalypse 2125, evil Emilio Bocker rules the city of Los Angeles with an iron grip. Something must be done, so you decide to search the city for Booker's hidden lair. But who are you? Well, when the game starts you can choose to be one of four different streetfighters, such as stealthy Stak and 'sexy Xena'! Exploring twelve parts of the city simply involves jumping around platforms, shooting nasties while searching for teleport and weapon disks. But the action is well-portrayed by large, Colourful graphics, while the digitised title picture of the four fighters is particularly impressive. Another playable Code Masters release is Fast Food (68%). Despite the strange moniker, this is actually a souped-up version of Pac-Man! The hero, however, resembles that old egghead, Dizzy. Hamburgers chase the oval hero around many mazes, while he tries to eat all the other food. Special abilities may be obtained, including burger-eating, by collecting various objects. What really disappoints is the pedestrian pace at which the action takes place. But amusing, animated screens every three levels provide an incentive to keep playing. The neat presentation is improved further on 128K machines by the inclusion of a neat in-game tune. However, even decent presentation would do little to improve Cult's dire Soccer Star (28%). This football management game is about as unrealistic as you can get. Firstly, there are only eight teams per division. But worse still, you are only allowed to buy and sell players at the beginning of the season: so if your team is rubbish, you're stuck with it! Match presentation is equally poor, consisting mainly of a ball wobbling along a line - this is meant to represent 'the balance of the match'! The goalmouth action is slightly better but is hardly exciting. With such limited options and poor presentation, Soccer Star is a sure candidate for relegation.