Karate Ace

Crash

COLLECTABLE CONSUMABLES One of the most popular complaints in LM's forum has always been the price of software, and it's often been used as justification for pirating software. People falling into this reprehensible habit should now make a New Year's resolution to stop because the excuse is utterly pathetic nowadays. Virtually all the big games, and many of the lesser ones, now seem to be automatically rereleased either on budget, or in a compilation. 'Wait and ye shall receive' seems to be the motto for anyone wary of splashing out £10 on a single piece of software. While compilations are around most of the year, Christmas and the New Year naturally draws the biggest releases with software houses showing off their 'greatest hits' - often with other companies' games to pad out a package. This practise is clearly vital to Gremlin who have no less than five anthologies coming out. GREEDY GREMLIN Perhaps due to the number of releases, Gremlin's titles show a distinct lack of imagination. 10 Great Games 3 is obviously the third in a ten game compilation series, but if the title doesn't set the blood racing some of the games should. From Hewson there's two written by Steve Turner; the acclaimed 1985 graphic adventure Dragontorc and the more recent Gauntlet-clone, Ranarama. Also from Hewson is Steve Crow's Firelord, a slightly more conventional arcade adventure. Somewhat more surprising inclusions than those from Hewson, for whom Gremlin are now distributors, are two Spanish games. These are the boxing simulation, Rocco by Dinamic, and a 1987 US Gold game, Survivors. Making up the rest of the tape are the classic flight sim from Digital Integration - Fighter Pilot, Leader Board,Impossaball and the disappointing 10th Frame. While most of the big games here are rather old, if you haven't already got them this is pretty good value. Imaginative Gremlin title number two is Ten Mega Games which is a little more up to date with releases such as the flawed beat-'em-up Hercules and the well received Blood Brothers. The top two games are probably Northstar and Cybernoid, but Deflektor is an intriguing puzzle game well worth a look. Strangely, both Cybernoid and Northstar are also featured on Gremlin's Space Ace collection. The five other five games include the excellent Exolon, Dominic Robinson's horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up Zynaps and the third MASK game - Venom Strikes Back. While fairly expensive, and with some rather mediocre games as padding, the good games more than make up for this. Another theme-based collection is Gremlin's Flight Ace. Also around the £15 mark this has just six games, most of which are quite long in the tooth. The only fairly recent game is the outstanding ATF which, with the helicopter sim Tomahawk, make this fairly respectable. Somewhat more dubious in value is the third in the 'Ace' theme trilogy - Karate Ace. This has the classic, clone-inspiring Way Of The Exploding Fist, the excellent two-player Bruce Lee and the epic Way Of The Tiger, but these are all quite old. Much of the rest of the games are not much more recent, and generally of distinctly inferior quality. Uchi Mata is truly awful for example. Unless you're a die-hard beat-'em-up fan, it's probably not worth the £12.95 asking price. THE MIDAS TOUCH US Gold may have just two compilations out, but one of them is the massive History in The Making, which at £24.95 is probably one of the most expensive Spectrum releases for ages. With 15 games the price-per-game is fairly reasonable, though, and the packaging with four tapes and a booklet is impressive. Unfortunately the games as a whole are weak. CRASH Smashes like the ancient Beach Head, Raid Over Moscow and the more recent Gauntlet fail to compensate for the mediocrity of the rest. This is an admirably wide-ranging history, but £24.95 seems a lot for the eight or so fairly good games - especially when most are now on budget. Also from US Gold is the boastfully named Giants collection. Although all of the games are fairly recent releases, you only get five for just under 13 quid (tape version), while +3 owners have to fork out an extortionate 20 quid! Moreover the five are, under closer examination, a little dwarfish with only 720° and Out Run of much interest. A TOUCH OF CLASS Fists 'N' Throttles is the tantalizing title for a potpourri Olive popular programs from Elite. You can bounce down the courses in Buggy Boy or perform dramatic motorbike leaps in Enduro Racer. Those feline cartoon stars, the Thundercats, also make an appearance. If you haven't got any of the games included then Fists 'N' Throttles represents good value for money. Unfortunately, if you live in Germany, you won't get Ikari Warriors, as it was banned by the West German government (yet German instructions for the game are included in the package!). Not to be outdone by their competitors, Ocean and imagine have some sumptuous compilations of their own. The sequel Game Set And Match 2 includes nine games ranging from a relaxing game of cricket in Ian Botham's Test Match to the bone-breaking grid iron action of American Football in Superbowl. Jon Ritman's fantabulous footy sim, Match Day II is also included along with the conversion of Sega's Super Hang-On. Burdened with some old and rather weak titles to fill it out this is still well worth considering. Two sets of coin-op hits are being issued by Imagine. The first, Konami Arcade Collection, has been available for a few months now, and encompasses ten hits of yesteryear, numbering no less than four CRASH Smashes among them. At £9.95 it offers attractive value for money. Also from Imagine comes a slightly newer selection of games, all Taito coin-op conversions. Taito Coin-op Hits contains eight such games, of which two - Flying Shark and Bubble Bobble - are fairly recent, highly-acclaimed Firebird releases. Breakout fans will be tempted by the inclusion of Arkanoid and its sequel, Revenge Of Doh, while beat-'em-up fans should be excited by Renegade. The final Ocean release, The in Crowd, contains a real collection of street credible games. Primarily there's the beat-'em-ups Target; Renegade and Barbarian, along with the militarish, but very different, Combat School and Platoon. With Karnov adding a touch of colour, and Gryzor and Predator more jungle action it's well worth the usual Ocean asking price. Lastly we come to those consistent suppliers of annual anthologies, Beau Jolly, 10 Computer Hits - Volume Five brings together ten middle of the road offerings, with only ...Traz standing out due to it being reviewed in this very issue! But Beau Jolly's pride and joy must be Supreme Challenge, a superb collection of three true mega games (Starglider, Elite and The Sentinel) plus one puzzling (Tetris) and, of course, the obligatory flight sim (Ace 2). At around £2.50 a game it can't be bad - even if you were only getting those three biggies! I dread to see what the documentation will be like: both Starglider and Elite had novellas and very detailed instruction manuals, in an A5 box! CRASH ISSUE FEATURED IN, AND REVIEW PERCENTAGE GIVEN. N/R DENOTES NOT REVIEWED. 10 COMPUTER HITS - VOLUME FIVE £12.95c, £16.95d Beau Jolly Dark Sceptre 47/88% Tarzan 36/73% Catch 23 43/56% Frightmare 51/57% Mystery Of The Nile 46/74% Mega Apocalypse 52/58% Magnetron 51/57% Ninja Hamster 43/60% Traz 60/81% Enlightenment: Druid II 49/68%

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Overall 61%

Julian Rignall 61%

COMPILATION CITY The festive season is a time of peace, joy... and compilations. This year is no exception, and there's a plethora of collections, assemblages and gift packs attempting to seduce a punter into parting with his pounds. Julian Rignall gives his advice on which ones offer the best value for money... One version of each compilation has been judged, but since games often vary in quality from format to format, there's a full list of marks for all versions of the compilation at the end of this feature, presented as three 'league' tables: one for Spectrum, one for Amstrad and one for C64 owners, giving a clear indication about which compilations are the best on which machines. GIANTS MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: US Gold PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £12.99 Cass, C64 £14.99 Disk, Spec £17.99 Disk. VERSION TESTED: C64 CALIFORNIA GAMES: Seven whacky events from the West Coast. Superb stuff! 720: Blocky, but competent skateboarding arcade conversion. GAUNTLET II: Good, but ageing conversion of the coin-op classic. OUTRUN: A big seller, but very average in all respects. ROLLING THUNDER: Ghastly coin-op conversion. A reasonable collection with one outstanding game, and one bummer C64 Overall: 78% Amstrad Overall: 72% Spectrum Overall: 72% STATE OF THE ART MACHINE: ST SUPPLIER: Ocean PRICE: £29.99 VERSION TESTED: ST BARBARIAN: Great hack 'n' slash fighting game. CRAZY CARS: So-so race game that lacks challenge. ENDURO RACER: Poor conversion of the Sega motocross arcade game. WIZBALL: Colourful and original horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up. RAMPAGE: Great conversion, but ultimately repetitive. Fairly good value for money, with a mixture of good and bad titles. Atari ST Overall: 75% SPORTS WORLD 88 MACHINE: C64 SUPPLIER: U.S. Gold PRICE: £12.99 Cass, £14 99 Disk VERSION TESTED: C64 CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING: Novel and compelling, but the multiload is a pain. 10TH FRAME: Superb bowling game with lovely graphics and feel. HARDBALL: Great American sports game with good graphics. LEADERBOARD: Classic golf game that's been done to death. 4TH & INCHES: Simply the best American football game available. SNOOKER AND POOL: Alright if you like this sort of thing. GO FOR GOLD: Excellent six-event sports simulation. WATER POLO: Unusual, and it's playable too! A brilliant package; on absolute must for sports fans. C64 Overall: 91% FISTS 'N' THROTTLES MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Elite PRICE: £9.95 VERSION TESTED: Amstrad IKARI WARRIORS: Ageing, but extremely playable and addictive shooting game. BUGGY BOY: Excellent off-road race game. THUNDERCATS: Colourful and addictive horizontally scrolling hack 'em up. DRAGON'S LAIR: Mediocre multiload arcade game. ENDURO RACER: Another excellent off-road race game — this time with bikes. A good all-round assemblage, with only one weak link. Amstrad Overall: 82% C64 Overall: 83% Spectrum Overall: 81% GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: US Gold PRICE: £12.99 VERSION TESTED: Spec SUMMER GAMES I: Fairly good eight-event simulation marred by long multiload. SUMMER GAMES II: improvement over its predecessor, but still suffers with long loading. WINTER GAMES: The pick of the bunch with seven good events; multiload's a pain. If you can stand the multiload, it's a reasonable package, but doesn't stand up to the likes of Game, Set and Match. Spectrum Overall: 63% Amstrad Overall: 74% C64 Overall: 88% TASTE OF AMERICA MACHINES: C64 SUPPLIER: US Gold PRICE: £9.99 Cass VERSION TESTED: C64 SIDE ARMS: Laughably grotty parody of the horizontally scrolling arcade game. SOLOMON'S KEY: Very addictive and enjoyable puzzle game. WORLD CLASS LEADERBOARD: The best of the series — if you can take any more. SUPERCYCLE: Easy, but exciting motorcycle racing game. Taste of America offers three nice bites, and and a side dish that'll make you throw up. C64 Overall: 73% COMMAND PERFORMANCE MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: US Gold PRICE: Ams/Spec/C64 £12.99 Cass, C64 £14.99 Disk, SPEC £17.99 Disk, AMS £19.99 Disk VERSION TESTED: C64 MERCENARY: Classic vector graphic exploration game. HARDBALL: Great American sports game with good graphics. ARMAGEDDON MAN: Very tepid and pedestrian war game. LEVIATHAN: Uncontrollable and unaddictive three-level Zaxxon clone. BOB SLEIGH: Hum-drum simulation with some token strategy SHACKLED: Utterly dire Gauntlet clone. TRANTOR: Very average and unchallenging shoot and explore game. CHOLO: Slow, but fairly compelling vector exploration game. XENO: Rubbish future sport simulation that plays like a brick. 10TH FRAME: Superb bowling game with lovely graphics and feel. A very mixed bag. Apart from Mercenary, there's nothing really outstanding, and Xeno and Shackled plumb the depths. C64 Overall: 67% Amstrad Overall: 75% Spectrum Overall: 72% HISTORY IN THE MAKING MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: US Gold PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £24.99 Cass, C64/Ams £29.99 Disk VERSION TESTED: C64 BEACHHEAD: Four-level combat game that has aged badly. BEACHHEAD II: Superb four-part combat game with great graphics and speech. BRUCE LEE: Classic arcade adventure with a little kick and chop. IMPOSSIBLE MISSION: Arguably the best-ever C64 game. KUNG-FU MASTER: Ageing arcade conversion that offers a bit of fun. GAUNTLET: Addictive conversion of the massive coin-op. GOONIES: Very droll puzzle/action game. Dire graphics. EXPRESS RAIDER: Pretty poor Kung-Fu Master game set on a train. LEADERBOARD: The ubiquitous golf game pops up yet again. SPY HUNTER: Enjoyable, but limited vertically scrolling blaster. SUPER CYCLE: Great motorbike racing game that's just a little too easy. WORLD GAMES: Eight weird events from around the world: ranks with California Games as the best of the series. RAID OVER MOSCOW: Fun-pack shoot 'em up with very fascist overtones. ROAD RUNNER: Faithful conversion, but wrecked by an arduous multiload. INFILTRATOR: Competent arcade adventure. Very pricey, especially as most if the better games are already available on budget, or other, cheaper compilations. C64 Overall: 74% Amstrad Overall: 70% Spectrum Overall: 69% ACTION SET MACHINE: ST SUPPLIER: Gremlin Graphics PRICE: £19.99 VERSION TESTED: ST DEFLEKTOR: A rather easy puzzle game, but fun nevertheless. NORTHSTAR: Colourful and fairly addictive shoot 'em up. TRAILBLAZER: Average race game variant with a few frills. 3D GALAX: A good exercise in 3D programming, but not much of a shoot 'em up. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: A game-of-the-film that should appeal to kids. Pretty good value, even though the games themselves aren't particularly brilliant. Atari ST Overall: 74% GAME, SET AND MATCH II MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Ocean PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £12.95 cass, £17.95 disk VERSION TESTED: Spec MATCH DAY II: The best football simulation available on the Spectrum. SUPERBOWL: Average simulation that might appeal to fans of the sport. WINTER OLYMPIAD: Six-event simulation, similar to the Games series. IAN BOTHAM'S TEST MATCH: An unexciting and bland cricket simulation. BASKET MASTER: Fairly competent game with naff graphics. TRACK AND FIELD: Jolly waggling version from a few years back. NICK FALDO'S GOLF: Good a couple of years ago, but now looking very dodgy. SUPER HANG-ON: Super indeed; a motorbike race game par excellence. STEVE DAVIS SNOOKER: Apparently the best of its kind. Who's arguing? CHAMPIONSHIP SPRINT: Super Sprint with a course designer: it's alright. Some of the games are a bit ropey, but there's plenty of variety and the whole package should keep a sports fan happy for weeks. Spectrum Overall: 82% Amstrad Overall: 81% C64 Overall: 87% TAITO COIN-OP HITS MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Imagine PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £12.99 cass VERSION TESTED: Spec RASTAN: A great exploration game with large map and plenty of enemies to hack. SLAPFIGHT: Tricky, but addictive vertically scrolling shoot 'em up. RENEGADE: Excellent conversion of the arcade beat 'em up. ARKANOID: Addictive Breakout variant. ARKANOID: REVENGE OF DOH: More of the some, and even more addictive. FLYING SHARK: Superb conversion of the arcade WW II shoot 'em up. BUBBLE BOBBLE: A totally faithful conversion of the amazing platform arcade game. LEGEND OF KAGE: The arcade game wasn't brilliant; neither is this. All excellent games apart from Legend of Kage, and even that isn't too bad. A must for an avid arcade gamesplayer. Spec Overall: 94% Amstrad Overall: 93% C64 Overall: 94% KARATE ACE MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Gremlin Graphics PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £14.99 Cass, £17.99 Disk VERSION TESTED: C64 WAY OF THE EXPLODING FIST: The grandad of computer beat 'em ups is still fun, but badly flawed. WAY OF THE TIGER: Similar to Exploding Fist, but not as good. SAMURAI TRILOGY: Exploding Fist with swords, and it's rubbish of the very highest order. BRUCE LEE: Ageing, but thoroughly enjoyable platform arcade adventure. KUNG-FU MASTER: Reasonable conversion of an old arcade game; still addictive though. AVENGER: Compelling arcade adventure-cum-beat 'em up. UCHI MATA: A noble attempt at a judo game, but it's sadly bugged. Loads of fightin' an' fumpin' on offer - although some of the games are very similar. C64 Overall: 64% Amstrad Overall: 63% Spectrum Overall: 61% TRIAD: VOLUME I MACHINES: ST/Amiga SUPPLIER: Triad PRICE: £29.99 VERSION TESTED: Amiga STARGLIDER: Thrilling vector shoot 'em up with plenty of depth. DEFENDER OF THE CROWN: A hit a couple of years ago; beginning to look ropey. BARBARIAN: Fairly good icon-driven arcade adventure. Quite expensive, especially as the games are all getting on. Amiga Overall: 66% SUPREME CHALLENGE MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Beau Jolly PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £12.95 cass, £16.95 disk VERSION TESTED: Spec ELITE: Classic space trading game that no Spectrum owner should be without. SENTINEL: Absolutely brilliant 3D arcade puzzle/strategy game. TETRIS: Unbelievably addictive arcade puzzle game. STARGLIDER: Superb 3D vector shoot 'em up with tons to do. ACE II: Fairly good one-on-one combat simulator. A varied selection of very high quality games; don't miss out on this collection of classics. Spectrum Overall: 95% Amstrad Overall: 94% C64 Overall: 90% SPACE ACE MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Gremlin Graphics PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £14.99 Cass, £17.99 DISK VERSION TESTED: C64 XEVIOUS: Very tepid version of an Atari's vertically scrolling shoot 'em up. VENOM STRIKES BACK: More MASK antics in this average arcade game. CYBERNOID: Addictive flick-screen blaster. NORTHSTAR: Run-of-the-mill trog-across-the-landscape-and-blast-the-aliens game. ZYNAPS: Challenging and compelling horizontally scrolling blaster. TRANTOR: Shoot and explore game with awful playability. EXOLON: Similar to Northstar, but marginally worse. Plenty of shooting action, but none of the games are outstanding. Still, there's hours of potential blasting in store C64 Overall: 70% Amstrad Overall: 71% Spectrum Overall: 74% FLIGHT ACE MACHINE: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Gremlin Graphics PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £14.99 Cass, £17.99 Disk VERSION TESTED: C64 AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: All the fun of a night shift at Heathrow! SPITFIRE 40: Relive the Battle of Britain in this average simulation. STRIKEFORCE HARRIER: Fairly average simulation of the VTOL jet. TOMAHAWK: Reputedly very accurate, but rather dull in practice. ATF: Not so much a simulation; more of a mediocre 3D shoot 'em up with extra bits. ACE: Fairly good combat simulator, although it s rather old A fairly good buy for budding pilots, but not recommended to anyone else. C64 Overall: 65% Amstrad Overall: 77% Spectrum Overall: 78% AMIGA GOLD HITS MACHINE: Amiga SUPPLIER: US Gold PRICE: £24.99 VERSION TESTED: Amiga BIONIC COMMANDO: Quite a neat conversion, but marred by push-scrolling. ROLLING THUNDER: Nowhere near as good as it could have been. JINKS: Colourful, but repetitive scrolling Breakout game. LEADERBOARD: Same as the 8-bit, but with slightly improved graphics. Not a lot to shout about, None of the titles are particularly thrilling, even though the games work out quite cheap. Amiga Overall: 67% GO CRAZY MACHINES: Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Go! PRICE: Ams/C64 £14.99 Cass, C64 £17.99 Disk, AMS £19.99 Disk VERSION TESTED: C64 SHACKLED: A Gauntlet clone of the most feeble kind. BAD CAT: Awful attempt at an "alternative" sports simulation, JINKS: Tedious and repetitive scrolling Breakout. SIDE ARMS: One of the worst horizontally scrolling shoot 'em ups around. DESOLATOR: Low-grade four-level Gauntlet game. BEDLAM: Boring and dull shoot 'em up that's devoid of action. And you certainly will go crazy if you buy this six-pack of turkeys. C64 Overall: 41% Amstrad Overall: 56% LEADERBOARD PAR 4 MACHINE: C64 SUPPLIER: US Gold PRICE: VERSION TESTED: C64 LEADERBOARD: The classic golf game - incredibly playable. LEADER BOARD TOURNAMENT: More of the same, but tougher. LEADER BOARD EXECUTIVE EDITION: Even more of the same, but tougher still! WORLD CLASS LEADERBOARD: Even more of the same, but this time modelled on real golf courses. If you're into golfing games, this collection is an absolute must. If not, avoid it like the plague. C64 Overall: 78% KONAMI ARCADE COLLECTION MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64 SUPPLIER: Imagine PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £9.99 Cass VERSION TESTED: C64 MIKIE: Very camp four-level arcade game; it's fun, though. JAILBREAK: Bileous mockery of the arcade original. Strictly for laughs. GREEN BERET: Very difficult, but additive stab 'n' roast arcade game. YIE AR KUNG-FU: Amusing beat 'em up, but it's getting a bit wrinkly. SHAO-LIN'S ROAD: Inept platform/beat 'em up. NEMESIS: Enjoyable conversion of the horizontal blaster, although it's a little long in the tooth. HYPERSPORTS: One of the original joystick wagglers, and it's still great fun. PING PONG: Playable table tennis game, with short-lived appeal. JACKAL: Grotting scrolling shoot 'em up. All the games are old, but they're all good fun; even the bad ones are good for a laugh! Cheap, too. C64 Overall: 80% Amstrad Overall: 80% Spectrum Overall: 83% IN-CROWD MACHINES: Spec/Ams/C64. SUPPLIER: Ocean PRICE: Spec/Ams/C64 £12.95 Cass, £17.95 DISK. VERSION TESTED: C64 GRYZOR: Tough and addictive conversion of the arcade blast. COMBAT SCHOOL: Seven assorted events and a combat mission - brilliant stuff! LAST NINJA: Superb six-level arcade adventure with ace graphics. PLATOON: Atmospheric and highly playable four-part game-of-the-film. PREDATOR: Enjoyable run 'n' blast film tie-in. TARGET RENEGADE: Great graphics and playability; puts Double Dragon to shame. BARBARIAN: Gory, but very gratifying hack 'n' slash fighting game. KARNOV: Bileous arcade conversion of the very lowest quality. Apart from one cabbage, In-Crowd is a marvellous compilation. Nearly all the games are multiload, and offer massive scope for long-term play. C64 Overall: 92% Amstrad Overall: 93% Spectrum Overall: 93% ULTIMATE: THE COLLECTED WORKS MACHINES: Spec SUPPLIER: US Gold PRICE: £12.99 cass, £14.99 disk VERSION TESTED: Spec JETPAC: A landmark in Spectrum computing; simple, but addictive. KNIGHT LORE: The original 3D isometric forced perspective arcade adventure; brilliant. ALIEN 8: Another superb arcade adventure. SABRE WULF: Another mould breaker; still as fresh and addictive as ever. GUNFRIGHT: Enjoyable and highly original 3D gunfighting game. LUNAR JETMAN: Utterly superb scrolling shoot 'em up; a classic. NIGHTSHADE: Innovative scrolling forced perspective arcade adventure. ATIC ATAC: Yet another classic arcade adventure - still incredibly engrossing. PSSST: Whacky and addictive arcade game. TRANS AM: Odd hybrid collect 'em up with cars. Good fun, though. COOKIE: Tough and frustrating, but very addictive arcade-style game. An utterly superb collection of class games. A slice of computing history that no Spectrum owner should pass by. Spectrum Overall: 98%

OVERALL TABLE: SPECTRUM Ultimate: Collected Works: 98% Supreme Challenge: 95% Taito Coin-op Hits: 94% In-Crowd: 93% Ten Great Games: 89% Konami Arcade Collection: 83% Game, Set and Match II: 82% Fists 'N' Throttles: 81% Flight Ace: 78% Leaderboard Par 3: 77% Space Ace: 74% Command Performance: 72% Giants: 72% History In The Making: 69% Gold, Silver, Bronze: 63% Karate Ace: 61% OVERALL TABLE: AMSTRAD Supreme Challenge: 94% Taito Coin-op Hits: 93% In-Crowd: 93% Ten Great Games: 87% Fists 'N' Throttles: 82% Game, Set and Match II: 81% Konami Arcade Collection: 80% Flight Ace: 77% Command Performance: 75% Gold, Silver, Bronze: 74% Giants: 72% Space Ace: 71% History In The Making: 70% Karate Ace: 63% Go Crazy: 56% OVERALL TABLE: C64 Taito Coin-op Hits: 94% In-Crowd: 93% Sportsworld: 91% Supreme Challenge: 90% Gold, Silver, Bronze: 88% Game, Set and Match II: 87% Ten Great Games: 86% Fists 'N' Throttles: 83% Konami Arcade Collection: 80% Giants: 78% Leaderboard Par 4: 78% History In The Making: 74% Taste Of America: 73% Space Ace: 70% Command Performance: 67% Flight Ace: 65% Karate Ace: 64% Go Crazy: 41%

Sinclair User

Overall 75%

Chris Jenkins 75%

Label: Star Games Author: Various Price: £12.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Chris Jenkins Seven martial arts games in one package! How could any average violent lunatic resist? Although many of these titles have appeared on budget labels, it's a fair bet that there will be enough in Gremlin's Star Games Karate Ace package to attract most lovers of kung-fooey. Melbourne House's Exploding Fist was the original, and in some ways is still the best: classic two-player multi-move action. Uchi Mata from Martech wasn't such an immediate success; it involves too much strategy and too little violence. Kung Fu Master from US Gold is a coin-op conversion, more of an arcade game than a simulation as you kick your way through a wizard's henchmen. Gremlin's Avenger, too, is a bit arcadey, a sort of cross between Gauntlet and, er, Gauntlet, with four-way scrolling. The sequel, Way of the Tiger, is a bit like Melbourne's Fighting Warrior; a series of encounters on a horizontally-scrolling background. US Gold's Bruce Lee is a classic platforms-ladders-and-kicking game with dozens of screens and nicely-designed graphics, while the final title, Gremlin's Samurai Trilogy, is a three-part sim in which you have to master Kendo (stick-fighting), Karate, and Samurai (sword-fighting) in order to reach the rank of Warlord. A nicely-chosen selection, then, with no turkey amongst them, and at a decent price.

Your Sinclair

Jonathan Davies

Star Games £14.99 cass/£17.99 disk Reviewer: Jonathan Davies Karate Ace is a whole bunch of games with one thing in common, and it's not necessarily karate, strangely enough. However, if martial arts sounds like your idea of fun, this could be your lucky day, 'cos this compilation contains some of the bestest oriental-type games around (and some of the worstest too). Glancing down the list below you'll see that most of them date from the early Mesozoic Era, but why let a minor point like that spoil the fun? So, chop chop, lets not hang about. With no discernible attempt at an eastern accent, here's the rine up... The Way Of The Exploding Fist: Need I say more? Oh really? Sigh. Known as 'Fist' to its friends, this is the great-grandaddy of them all, and looks none the worse for wear. Okay, well a bit then. The graphics have since been bettered, and there's very little variety. But oh how that beeping intro tune brings back memories! And that eye-watering kick in the goolies, probably the all-time greatest move ever. However, the opponents aren't too bright, and repeating a certain move a few times gets you through every time. It's definitely best with two players. YS hadn't learnt to count way back in '85 when this one appeared, so there's no rating for it, but we liked it all right. Kung Fu Master: The only coin-op conversion in the collection, and the worst of the lot in my opinion. The idea is to battle through the five floors of a temple to rescue the poor damsel held captive at the top (sorry ladies!). This involves beating up the obligatory crowd of baddies with the various moves available to you. The graphics really turned heads when the game first appeared - away mainly - and today they look worse still. Slow, stodgy, tons of colour-clash. Playability isn't too bad, but the whole thing seems so vague it's unlikely to hold your interest for long. Kung Fu Master managed an eight first time round, but things have changed around here. Way Of The Tiger: Maintenant vous parlez. This is a three-part multiloader, but don't hold that against it. The graphics are what really makes this one, and they look good, even over two years later. The attention to detail is fantastic, particularly in the backgrounds, where fish plop out of rivers, owls fly overhead and peasants walk past pushing carts. Also worthy of a mention is the 3D parallax scrolling, which works vertically as well as horizontally. A little sluggish perhaps, but it brings a whole new dimension to the game thence '3D' Gottit?). The three chunks are Unarmed Combat, Pole Fighting (Warsaw this about, then? Ho-ho) and the grand finale... Samurai Sword Fighting. They're all good fun, although you'll be lucky to get a whack in edgeways on the last part. A Megagame in its time, and it still looks triffic today. Avenger: Billed as WOTT II (or Wotty), it's really nothing like the first part. But its still darned good. Gauntlet is what first springs to mind. Same overhead view same maze, same scrolling, but otherwise totally different. Continuing the beat 'em up theme, in order to dispatch the various nasties that come your way, you can punch and kick in the traditional manner or, if things get desperate, let loose with the shuriken. There are loadsa objects to pick up too, so you won't get bored. Once again, graphics are First class (yuk, I hate that programme...) with nice smooth scrolling and there are plenty of sound FX and tunes. Once again, a Megagame originally, and it holds onto its title on the curtain call. Bruce Lee: If you thought Fist was going back a bit, how about this? I'm amazed the British Museum let Star Games have the master copy back! Brucie got mixed reactions when he was let loose on our screens, oooh... must be three years ago now and I still feel that way now. On the one hand, it's great fun dashing around the wizard's fortress collecting lanterns for a while, but as I remember, this was the only game I managed to beat eight times in a row without losing a life. It really is incredibly easy once you get to know the routine. And there aren't that many rooms to explore, so that doesn't take long. The graphics look pretty disgusting as well. They're primatively drawn, and exceedingly repetitive. Uchi Mata: Ooch! This one looks a bit rough round the edges. It also has the honour of being the only judo simulation I've ever come across. Actually underneath all the tatty presentation, odd-looking, flickery sprites and utter, utter lack of sound there's quite a strategic little number lurking in there. The idea is to execute as many judo throws as you can, as well as possible and so pick up points. These moves are quite nicely animated, but the blokes flicker so much it's easy to lose track of them at times. Uchi Mata, incidentally, is another name for the pervy-sounding Inner Thigh Throw. Uchi takes a while to get into, but could be quite fun once you get the hang of it. I think most people are likely to be put off by the sordid presentation before they get that far though. We gave it seven initially. Samurai Trilogy: This is another Gremliny three-part ninja jobby, but not really in the same league as WOTT. There are some very nicely done title screens, with a whopping great character set and a good tune, but after this things go sadly downhill. While the backgrounds are well- drawn the sprites themselves look decidedly limp-wristed, and animation is poor. As a result, the game isn't really terribly playable, and the three sections - Karate, Kendo and Samurai - don't contain enough variation to make the thing worthwhile. The training element, where you can choose three areas of ability to improve, doesn't help a lot either. Samurai Trilogy originally netted a seven. So there we have it. A mixed bag, as the weather man would say. A couple of goodies, a few averagies and two or three that aren't really worth the bother. It goes without saying that you'd have to be a pretty determined chop 'n'slasher to be interested, but then again I think that covers most of us. But I do have a couple of little queries (quiet at the back!) why's it so pricey, and why fill two tapes with largely identical games? Still, it does come in a nice big cardboard box, and being available on disk will make it very attractive to certain sections of society. If you haven't already got the gooduns, I'd give it a go if I were you.

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