Combat - Pack 3

Sinclair User

Overall 67%

Ed Lawrence 67%

Label: Zeppelin Memory: 48K/128K Price: £3.99 Tape Reviewer: Ed Laurence They're tough, they're mean, they're nasty, they're on the latest compilation from Zeppelin. This pack incorporates four tough and hard hitting action games (apparently). All of which are a bit different. Spaghetti Western involves a cowboy western town (oddly enough) in trouble. People are being shot, trains are being robbed and horses are having their drinking water pilfered. And so you, the hardest and craziest sheriff palookaville, get hired to sort the whole mess out. SW essentially involves cleaning up the town jail and all the bad guys before finally returning home, having collected lots of bounty, for some good old fashioned western steaks. The task's are not easy though and you'll find all manner of obstacles barring your path to success your success, ranging from gunslingers to flying... things(?!) Spaghetti Western is graphically quite impressive, with very large clear sprites. Sound is a tad sparse but the effects are pretty smart. The only bad thing about it's playability is that it can be a touch unresponsive. Still a fun game though. Upon loading Kick Box Vigilante you discover that certain people have begun to doubt your fighting skills and, more to the point, have taken to calling you a bit of a tart. So in order to prove them wrong and also because you think it'll be a bit of a laugh you decide to accept an invitation to prove yourself at their martial arts temple. Four top fighters block your path to the land of smartness but I really don't think you'll ever want to go there as, yawn, there is a distinct lack of gameplay in this low kicking ninja blast. KBV isn't challenging at all and the lack of detailed moves make it dull and very short lived. All the mysteries of the ancient orient have been instilled into a lethal killer and roid and now it's your job to guide him across various horizontally scrolling landscapes killing anything in your path. This is the sort of fare offered by Bionic Ninja. You can kick, punch or just pick up a club and bludgeon your enemies to death. Again we have some large, well drawn sprites, this time accompanied with good sounds and oodles of playability. Suffice to say, this is one of the winner on a compilation of doom. Last but not least you're a Ninja Commando, so tough that a delegation from your local darts club have bet you a large sum of money that you can't make it across eight horizontally scrolling landscapes, kill loads of people and still come back alive. Being the kind of person you are (not to mention the fact that you're skint) you accept. At first you can only kill enemies by jumping on them but certain stiffs drop weapons such as shurikens and bombs that can be used to kill even more. Good Luck, you'll need it. Unfortunately the backgrounds and the main sprites look so similar you can't distinguish between the two so this game ultimately becomes very frustrating. Oh well C'est la vie. Combat Pack 3 is a combination of four not-very-good games on one cassette all for £3.99. As such it does represent moderate value if you're after a bit of fisticuffs and gunslinging amusement. Not for perfectionists though.

I don't think that putting your foot at the end of the gun barrel will stop the bullet.

Look at the size of his hand! You shouldn't laugh, the poor chap, it can't be very nice for him.

Look, mummy - those two men are fighting!

Nope, sorry. Can't help you with this one.

OK, Mr Cactus, put 'em up!

One-legged Jack hopped to the edge of the screen. He was bored you see.

Pick on someone your own size, you big bully!

This is a very dangerous move. Don't try this at home unless you are a trained acrobat.

Your Sinclair

Overall 37%

Craig Broadbent 37%

REPLAY Re-pla, vt To play again. n That section in YS which covers re-released games. (We just thought you'd like to know.) 4X4 COMBAT PACK Zeppelin £3.99 cassette [redacted] Reviewer: Craig Broadbent After a couple of months away from the Jugglers bench, I was hoping to emerge from the Pitstop to find a really groovesome game awaiting me. But alas, the world is not an ideal one, and what actually turned up was this slightly-under-average pack of fighting games. Never mind, let's have a recap anyway... NINJA COMMANDO Not a good start. This looks like the sort of game a budget house would turn down except, of course, this one didn't. This is a Green Beret clone without any of the good bits. What we have got are mono graphics, flickery sprites and extremely sparse sound effects. I really can't think of any good points. This isn't a very professional-looking game at all, and although it's set at about the right difficulty level, it just hasn't got lasting appeal. 25° BIONIC NINJA Presumably set in the future, Bionic Ninja has you, with a choice of three weapons, up against a load of gun-toting cyborgs and robots in a horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up. This is probably the best of the bunch, but it does have its (numerous) shortfalls. For a start, it's too slow, and it suffers from the usual problems of mono graphics and virtually nonexistent sound. A good try, but not nearly good enough. 53° KICK BOX VIGILANTE Nice to see a bit of colour in this one, shame about the game. This is Renegade at its most simple. You are the Kick Box Vigilante, up against one opponent in a two dimensional battle-ground (that's the green bit). This could have been good, it certainly could have been better. As it is, it just doesn't cut that proverbial mustard. 38° SPAGHETTI WESTERN Instructions on re-releases tend to leave a lot to the imagination, but this one really is the pits. All the keys given are WRONG, and so you're left to work them out for yourself. How annoying. So why don't I use a joystick? Well, only one of the four games is actually compatible with Kempston joysticks. This is not very good and, surprise surprise, neither is this game. 25° All in all, a bit of a duffer. Oh, and I have thought of one good point - none of the games are multiloads. It's this sole fact that's saved this compilation from the dismal twenties.

"Hello, Master Cobbler. Can you mend my hand-turned moccasin? I appear to have split the sole while tap-dancing my way to victory in the All-Newcastle Freestyle Leapy Jumpy Looking Silly Contest."

What a silly cowboy. He'll never make it to the dizzy heights of a guest spot on Bonanza. Shooting a bag indeed! And that cactus is entirely unconvincing.

What an interesting botanical specimen! Is it a rare herb, or perhaps a young privet bush? No, it's just a weed. Pity.

Wilbur sprang merrily upon the trampoline. Loaf Minor ran to take part in the fun, while Al decided to join SOGAT.