SAS Combat Simulator

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! SAS COMBAT SIMULATOR Code Masters £1.99 Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann Or Commando, by any other name, as you blast and shoot yourself through some benighted warzone in the knowledge that sooner or later your number (31) is up. Instead of scrolling vertically, as all previous Commando 'tributes' have done, this at least has the wit to scroll horizontally, and the sprite too is satisfyingly large and visible. In fact this is really quite fun, even if it is more derivative than Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Your little fellow can move diagonally as well as in the normal four directions - good news, as his main task is to avoid the many bullets that his opponents fire at him. Fortunately, although the game itself is as fast as you'd wish it, the bullets are dead slow, so dodging them is not too tricky. Also important is to avoid getting close to the enemy, as there's hand-to-hand combat in this game - find yourself next door to a gook and you're severely dead. In all there are four 'combat zones' (levels), which should keep anyone who's seen Platoon too many times very happy. The programmers have also picked up loads of tricks from Green Bert, Vindicator and such like, which makes SAS Combat Simulator (surely the most desperate Simulator title yet) rather a greatest hits of programmers' tricks, but it's no less fun for all that. Still, I hope you'll excuse me if I return to Technician Ted...

Sinclair User

Graphics 56%

Sound 59%

Playability 63%

Lastability 60%

Overall 58%

Chris Jenkins 58%

Label: Codemasters Author: Jason Falcus & Adrian Ludley Price: £2.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Chris Jenkins I can't stand this. You'd have thought we had made enough fun of Codemasters in the past, without them descending into self-parody. Not only do they have the cheek to call this an "SAS Simulator" - SIMULATOR. HAH! - but they also go as over-the-top as usual with self-penned reviews. "It's absolutely incredible how much gameplay there is!", says David Darling. No it isn't! There's a perfectly normal amount of gameplay, neither more nor less than you would expect. So, having vented some of my not inconsiderable spleen, what's the game all about? Well, far from being an SAS Combat Simulator, which would presumably involve making sure that your black balaclava was colour-co-ordinated with your black boiler suit, black gasmask and black machine gun, before you set out to attack a choice of any three from ten foreign embassies... er, where was I? Oh yes, basically this is a horizontally-scrolling Commando-style game. You start off armed with a rifle and hand grenades. It's the usual business; move from left to right, pressing the fire button to shoot down little potty soldiers, holding it down to launch a grenade. Graphics and sound could fairly be described as ho-hum, scrolling is OK and action fairly continuous. Soon, though, things get silly. By running over a Codemasters logo (typical bit of modesty there, lads) you pick up extra weapons or lives. The first weapon is a jeep, but what a jeep! it can move forwards, backwards, up, down, even diagonally, without changing the way it's facing! WOW! While in the jeep you're protected from enemy bullets, but not from grenades. Baddies, meanwhile, fall spinning to the ground as your crush your way through them. The end of each level is marked by a railway line. After flinging a grenade at the passing train you turn upwards, fight your way past the terrifying pillbox, and reach the end of the level. Between levels you encounter the "hand-to-hand-combat simulator". Oh dear oh dear. This bit's awful. Here you have a side view rather than a top view, and your little SAS maniac makes his way from left to right, fighting off enemies by prodding them in the stomach with what looks like a fishfinger. Timing is the thing here; there's certainly no other element of skill involved. In due course you come to the end of this merry interval, and it's on to level two, which is the same as level one except that it's green. If SASCS hadn't been called SASCS, and IF it wasn't so ridiculously hyped on the back, I wouldn't have been too unpleasant towards it. As a cut-price version of Fernandez Must Die, it's not a bad effort, with reasonable gameplay and sound making up for the slightly drab graphics. As it is take the standard advice and try before you buy - even at £2.99.

Crash

Overall 71%

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.

ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)

Ace Rating 712/1000

Spectrum, Amstrad: £2.99 Taking a Commando-style viewpoint, SAS Combat Simulator takes the player through four huge levels of enemy-infested landscape, on a clandestine mission to assassinate the rebel leader. The SAS officer begins his mission on foot armed only with a gun and a limited supply of grenades. Collection of "Codemasters" logos is rewarded with a jeep or tank in which to cover ground more quickly; a bazooka with which to increase the death toll; rapid fire, ditto; and a smart bomb, double ditto. The play area scrolls alternately horizontally and vertically, with an enemy stronghold at the end of each level. On reaching the enemy headquarters, the display switches to a Green Beret style side view, as the SAS officer indulges in hand-to-hand combat against hostile commandos. Not the most original of games, but a pleasant mix of two game styles. Reasonably portrayed on the Spectrum - even more so on the Amstrad - and proving quite addictive, if lacking repeat appeal.