8BS Review
Title: Play it again Sam 6
Price: £11.95 (Special discount for 8bs users)
By: Superior Software
Type of game: Various (there are four in the compilation)
In this compilation there are four games, Galaforce 2, Hunchback and Hopper
(all by Superior) and The Sentinel which was originally by Firebird. This was
a strange collection for me, because I normally find that Superior at least
includes one complexed game, such as a graphics adventure or repton style game,
but unusually, this one has very simple, arcade games on it, the most complexed
being The Sentinel.
I'll start with the worst, because I want to end this review on a good note!
The Sentinel
This game started off on a bad note for me, mainly because, when I loaded it
up, I could not figure out what the hell I was supposed to do! Normally,
before even taking a peek at the manual I at least have a little muck around on
the game, check out the graphics etc, before I get into it and settle down to
play it properly. However, on this occasion, everything was so strange and
weird that I could not even figure out what I was looking at, never mind what I
was supposed to do! A look at the instructions did not really help either, I
just could not understand what I was supposed to do! Anyway, I eventually
figured out that you have to create robots, boulders and trees, you start in a
sort of isometrically shaped world, with squares as the surfaces, in a sort of
mountain formation. You have to build robots on the squares higher than you,
then transfer to those robots and absorb the old robot, the eventual aim of
which is to elevate yourself to a higher position on the map than the Sentinel.
To stop you doing this, the Sentinel has several sentries, which try and
locate you, and then attack you, draining some of your energy, which you need
to build things with. Some sentries change trees into Meanies, which try and
get you to reveal yourself, by forcing you into hyperspace, that is, moving you
to another location on the map. Now although this may seem very simple, to me
it has to be one of the all time worst plots ever for a computer game, it is
just complete rubbish! The game actually moves at such a slow pace, that you
could easily spend a day on just one level, it really is like a slug. The
graphics are very nice and 3d, but whats the point if they hardly move? The
sound is about average, with just a few pings and clicks, but the thing is that
I have never ever seen any of the meanies or sentrys, they just don't appear
for me. The furthest I have actually got in this game is nowhere, I have tried
playing it several times, but each time I die, for no apparent reason energy
gets drained. I would have to say that this is the worst ever BBC Game I have
played, I really do hate it with a passion, how it got onto a PIAS compilation
I will never know.
Score: 15%
Hopper
Ahh, this is a nice little game, programmed by those experts at Acornsoft, who
in my opinion created some of the best ever arcade conversions for the BBC,
this one you may more commonly know as Frogger. We all know the game play of
Frogger, but for those peoples sakes who have been on Mars for the past decade
and a half, here it is, you play the part of a frog, trying to get back to his
home, unfortunately a road full of traffic and a fast flowing river stands in
your way. So, what you have to do is cross the road, by dodging all the
traffic, then cross the river on the backs of some friendly turtles (who
annoyingly dive more frequently when you are on them :-) and some logs. If you
get hit by a car then you lose a life, and if you don't get off a log before it
gets to the edge a screen then you die, you must get past all the logs and
turtles, and then direct your frog into one of the five spaces on the other
bank of the river, when you do that, it is time for the next frog to cross the
road, and you repeat this until all five spaces are filled, thus completing the
level. As you complete more levels the traffic moves progressively faster, as
do the turtles (they also dive more) and the logs, so the game really has no
limit of levels, it is more of a high score beater, which is good.
I really like this game because it has a nice set of graphics, the gameplay is
focused on, which is important, and it seems to have everything nicely timed,
you actually feel yourself getting better as you play more, it has a great
learning curve. The sound is nice, with little tunes and all the right
effects, and it has that elusive 'just one more play' feeling. A great game
overall and certainly lifts the compilation from the depths at which it lay
after me playing sentinel first!
Score: 89%
Hunchback
One of the golden games of the 80's, this has been ported to just about every
format imaginable, certainly all the 8-bitters had this on them. Another
simple, yet fun to play game, you are a hunchback, and have to rescue your
sweetheart, Princess Esmerelda from the evil clutches of the baddies. The
trouble is, you have to dodge the rocks, arrows and holes which stand in your
way on each screen (there are 12) Jumping will suffice most of the time, but a
keen sense of timing will help on the latter levels. The game is nicely
presented in a side view platform style layout, it must have been one of the
earliest platform games (earlier than Lode Runner?) and probably sparked off
a million Sonic the Hedgehogs in its time.
It has a great set of obstacles to overcome, and each screen is just different
enough for you to like, for example, all you have to do on the first screen is
jump over a couple of rocks to reach the other side of the screen, but on the
second screen you have to swing across a gorge on a rope, nice varying gameplay
there. I really like this game, although not as much as Hopper, because it
gets very hard at the end. There are some nice sound effects, especially the
sound of the Hunchback as he falls to his death! So, another triumph of
simplicity over complexity then!
Score: 81%
Galaforce 2
This is a shoot em up style game, in much the same vein as its predecessor
Galaforce and also to a certain extent Galaga and Arcadians. Yes, you've
guessed it, its another shoot the aliens in space game, but this time with a
difference. I think this game is highly impressive, because not only do the
aliens come at you with a startling array of formations and tactics, but also
throughout the game there is a great musical score, which really does get the
old trigger finger pumping, something that some shoot em ups sadly lack. Yes,
it may be the umpteenth different variation on the Space Invaders theme, but
it is definitely one of the best of those variations. Another great thing
about it, which is not one of the normal elements of games of the era is the
inclusion of Bosses, nice big spaceships, which are harder to destroy, it
really makes the end of each phase (determined when you have shot enough
baddies) much more enjoyable, and it very satisfying when you shoot them! The
action varies in every galay (phase) of which there are 16, with completely
different formations of aliens, and types of aliens, in each one.
Another good feature is the inclusion of several powerups, such as extra laser
power, extra lifes, and others, but be careful! There are an equal number of
'power downs' which slow down your movement, decrease fire power etc. Overall,
I think this is definitely the best shoot em up game ever done by Superior,
nothing else can match it for sheer pace and excitement which you feel when
playing it, definitely one for the end of a long, hard day!!
Score: 75%
So I definitely think this shows a triumph of Simplicity over Complexity, as I
mentioned earlier, sometimes it can be better to have a well produced simple
game, than a badly produced complex game, because there is a lot more that can
go wrong when you have such a complexed game as the Sentinel, and evidently by
the score it received, something has gone wrong!! I don't think this is one of
the best PIAS collections, but definitely not the worst, it is definitely one
of the more arcade orientated ones though, which may be good or bad for you,
depending on your preferences.
Overall score: 70%
Reviewer: Crispin Boylan (E4W)