'Back
in Time' is a monthly feature where we look back at the classic video
gaming magazines twenty years ago this month. This month it's April
1991 when Brat caused a stir on the Amiga, Super Cars returned to the
16-bit track for another lap, Hero Quest made its successful transition
from board game and Gauntlet made its successful transition into 3D....
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The
One issue 31’s
coverdisk featured a playable demo of Brat
on the Amiga and Atari ST. In the One on One interview, Gary Whitta
spoke to well-known writer and computer buff, Douglas Adams, famous for
The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Rik Haynes went stateside to report back from Texan games company
Origin.
Brat,
which featured on the front cover, also took the main review, with the
Amiga version receiving a sound 93% rating. “Hot on the heels
of Psygonosis’ Lemmings
comes this innovative mix of wrist-breaking arcade action and devilish
strategy,” enthused Ciaran Brennan. “Make no
mistake, this is no childish effort – Brat
is as innovative and addictive a puzzle game as you’re likely
to see for quite some time.”
Midwinter
2: Flames of Freedom on the
Atari ST also impressed with a rating of 93%. “Midwinter 2
is superb,” commented Paul Pressley, “every angle
of play is catered for and the whole package works well. Although
it’s undoubtedly a shame that the extensive character
interaction has been lost, what’s been added makes this
sequel an exciting and lasting challenge.”
Switchblade
2 on the Amiga was then rated
90% by Brian Nesbitt. “This is a genuine pleasure to
play,” wrote Brian, “and a challenge to complete
– and while the sudden jump from action/exploration game to
arcade/platform action might deter a few players at first, it
shouldn’t be too long before its individual merits shine
through. Switchblade
2 is up against some tough
competition just now, but even in this company it still has plenty to
offer.”
Super
Cars 2 rounded off the
reviews section with a fine 91%. “As with most games which
incorporate a two-player option, Supercars
2
is most enjoyable when played with a friend,” explained Paul
Presley. “What’s unusual though, is that
it’s still great fun as a single-player game. Supercars 2
may be using a tried and trusted formula – but it’s
using it brilliantly.” |
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Issue
17 of Sega
Power featured Michael
Jackson in front of dozens of digital images of himself to coincide
with the Master System and Mega Drive reviews of Moonwalker.
Unsurprisingly, the Mega Drive version came away with the better rating
(90% over the Master System’s 83%), mainly due to its quality
sound and unforgettable digital adaptation of
Jackson’s famous tunes. “A classic game
that will keep you enthralled for ages,” stated the reviewer,
“brilliant graphics, fantastic touches to the gameplay and a
soundtrack second to none. Moonwalker
has loads of brilliant gimmicks, but is an excellent game as well. Bad?
Definitely not!”
The Master System gained ground on the Mega Drive with a superb Castle of Illusion
Starring Mickey Mouse game
which was given a P-Factor of 96%. “The best licensed game to
ever appear on the Master System, and arguably the best game of any
sort to have appeared,” commented the reviewer.
“We're giving it the highest rating we've ever given a game,
Master or Mega - recommendations don't come any stronger than that. A
stonking dream of a game.”
The Bitmap Brothers’ classic 16-bit computer futuristic
sports game Speedball
made it to the Master System with a P-Factor of 80%. “Speedball
gets a high Power Factor because it's a great game to play - only in
two player mode however. If you're only going to play it on your own,
don't bother,” warned the reviewer. “If you and a
mate fancy clubbing together and sharing the cart though you'll have
hours of entertaining and highly competitive fun.”
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Crash
issue 87 and it was game thrills with Bounder,
Anarchy,
Bite
The Dust, Moon Magic
and Toyota
Rally demo gracing the
covertape. The results of the readers’ awards were announced
with some familiar names appearing on top of the lists. Best Overall
Game went to Ocean’s RoboCop 2,
Best Coin-Op Conversion was given to NARC,
Best Licensed Game (non Coin-Op): RoboCop
2,
Best Original Game: Magicland Dizzy,
Best Adventure/Strategy Game: Lords
of Chaos,
Best Graphics: Teenage Mutant Hero
Turtles, Best Sound: Rainbow
Islands,
Best Software House: Ocean, Best Original Budget Game: Magicland Dizzy,
Best Newcomer: Hi-Tec Software, Worst Thing About 1990: lack of
software.
In the reviews pages, Night Shift
was given one of the highest Crash
Smash ratings in the magazine’s recent memory with 96%.
“It makes a very refreshing change to see an original game
and Night
Shift gets a big thumbs up
from me,” explained Mark Caswell, while Nick Roberts agreed
that the game “is totally original and totally brilliant.
After playing endless shoot/beat/puzzle-‘em-ups, this is like
a breath of fresh air.”
Gremlin’s conversion of the hit strategy board game Hero Quest
was next receiving the praise with an overall 93%. Richard Eddy
commented that the game is “like a really good adventure game
made even better with the use of great graphics and animation, bringing
the whole thing to life. It’s a really engrossing and
it’ll be a long time before I get through the many varied
quests.” Mark Caswell hoped that with the “success
of Heroquest
ensures that more roleplaying board games are converted to the
Speccy.”
Gauntlet
3: The Final Quest was given
the final Crash
Smash of the month with 90%. Nick Roberts pointed out that while
“Gauntlet
was glorious 2D, this sequel is in full 3D, with highly detailed
backgrounds and characters, all in lovely monochrome… The
original game was highly addicitive in both arcade and computer
versions and this gives it a whole new lease of life.” Mark
added that “Gauntlet 3
looks good, plays well and would take most of my week’s wages
if it were an arcade game.”
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Adorning the Power Pack with Commodore
Format issue 7 was a copy of
Andrew Braybrook's classic shoot-'em-up Uridium,
along with Blue
Max (an old Zaxxon
style game), Crystal Castles
(arcade style game) and 5th Gear
(Rally racing arcade). Teenage
Mutant Hero
Turtles were still dominating
the C64 charts with Dizzy
Collection and Creatures
taking up positions two and three respectively. The Commodore Format
A to Z of Classic Games continued as Gordon Houghton recalled the best
of C64 game from J to P, with the likes of Last Ninja 2,
Maniac
Mansion, Manic Miner,
Mircoprose
Soccer, Paradroid
and Myth.
The CF Compendium of Mean… feature also continued with
aliens being the topic this time, including the Bio-Ship (found in Nemesis,
The Brain (found in Salamander),
Giant Foetus (Io)
and Hammer Fist (Turrican)
.
Receiving one of the Powertest’s ‘It’s A
Corker’ award this month was Virgin’s conversion of
the hit 16-bit science fiction strategy game Supremacy.
Sean Masterson gave the game 95% and commented that there is more than
meets the eye with Supremacy.
“Random events create the illusion of a real
environment… Your difficult task emerges from a wealth of
attractive graphics accompanied by some of the most atmospheric sounds
you’ll ever hear your SID chip sing.”
Fans of the classic Bomb Jack
series of arcade platform games could rejoice with the 91% rating of
the game’s return with The
Mighty Bomb Jack.
Steve Jarratt noted that Elite haven’t released much on the
64 of late but with this game has to rank as one of the best
they’ve ever done. With above-average presentation, slick
controls and classic gameplay, it would be a crime [to] not TMB
our highest accolade. ‘It’s A
Corker’”
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As promised, this month of Amstrad
Action came with the first of
the permanent covertapes. Action Pack number 1 included the complete
game of the classic Code Masters egg adventure Dizzy,
the complete underwater capers of Hydrofool,
a playable demo of Ocean’s forthcoming conversion of Total Recall
and the AA
Toolbox containing utilities, type-ins, pokes and more. Those Teenage Mutant Hero
Turtles were also dominating
the Amstrad charts with the Dizzy
Collection and Big Box compilation in at two and three.
It was compilation time in the Action Test section with the 10 Pack and
Hollywood Collection both coming away with ‘AA
Rave’ award ratings of 89% and 83%. Among the new releases,
US Golds’ puzzle game Chip’s
Challenge
impressed with an 86% rating. “Chip’s
Challenge
is an incredibly addictive puzzler,” wrote Adam Waring.
“…it really is impossible to tear yourself
away.”
Space arcade game Extreme
was next to receive the ‘AA Rave’ plaudits with an
84%. “Technically, the game is brilliant,”
commented Adam Waring, “The sprites start off pretty huge in
the first level and simply get bigger as the game goes on.”
However, “another couple of lives wouldn’t have
gone amiss, nor would some kind of restart system. Very
frustrating.”
Audiogenic’s puzzler Loopz
received the final ‘AA Rave’ this month with an
overall rating of 87%. Frank O'Connor noted that “the various
skill levels and game types give this title a great deal of variety,
and a genuinely lasting challenge… The presentation is good,
but sheer playability is what makes Loopz
shine.” |
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For the fifth Amiga Action
cover disk, the team brought readers playable demos of Back to the Future 3,
Chuck
Rock and Super Cars 2.
Standout feature this month was Amiga Action Presents…
Flight Feature with HUD, perspective, manoeuvres and cockpit guides.
Flying in with a touchdown and taking first place in the Flight Sims
league table was Flight of the
Intruder
with an overall rating of 92%. “Mirrorsoft have come up
[with] a flight sim so excellent that you could mistake it for the real
thing,” enthused the reviewer. “That will never be
the case but this is the closest you’re going to get to
reality… The graphics are great… Sound is also
very realistic. Presentation is superb… Congratulations to
Mirrorsoft for a masterpiece.”
Another touchdown result as Lemmings
went straight into first place on the Puzzle Games league table with
90%. Lemmings
“is absolutely amazing while being very original,”
wrote the reviewer. “It reminds me of the sort of addictive
games that we used to play on the C64… Whatever type of game
you enjoy you’ll enjoy Lemmings.
Totally amazing.”
The first person adventure game Chaos
Strikes Back
entered the dungeons of the Arcade Adventure league table at number two
with 90%, only being beaten by the game’s classic predecessor
Dungeon
Master. “To put it
simply,” explained the reviewer, “Chaos Strikes Back
is probably the best game for a 1 meg Amiga, and anyone who has played
the original Dungeon Master
will know what a fantastic game FTL have produced.”
Other Super League Accolade rated games (85% or over) this month
included Genghis
Khan (87%), Chuck Rock
(89%) and Bandit
Kings of Ancient China (85%).
Super League Accolade Recommended (75%-84%) were Star Control
(79%), Hard
Drivin' 2 (82%), Zarathrusta
(68%), Gazza
2 (57%), Death Trap
(75%), Tournament
Golf (74%), Revelations
(77%), Corporation
Mission Disk (84%) and Escape from
Colditz
(83%).
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ST
Action issue 36 ‘s
coverdisk featured two playable demos of Back to the Future Part
III and Predator 2.
To accompany the demos, features on both films were included in the
issue. Other features this issue included Horror! Fangs for the Mummory
(a feature on horror films and upcoming game translations) and Sexism
Storms Back onto ST Action's
Pages (a follow up feature on sexism in advertising).
First up to get the A1 rated (80+) games treatment was Horror Zombies from the
Crypt with 85.
“Occasionally a game arrives that’s different and
makes you want to play it that little bit longer,” stated the
reviewer. “This is definitely one of them. If you are looking
for something different, Horror
Zombies
is definitely a game worth a look.”
Death
Trap from Anco proved to be a
popular game with an overall rating of 87. “It keeps you
coming back for more and will be near the top of my ‘best
game of 1991’ list,” commented the reviewer.
“Death
Trap is a game of immense
playability with lasting appeal that rivals Millennium’s Horror Zombies.”
Rainbird’s strategy UMS II:
Nations at War
battled out a rating of 85%. “The original UMS
was undoubtably a classic wargame environment. Now Rainbird have gone
one better with the follow-up program,” enthused the
reviewer. “This is a truly excellent piece of software and
one that no strategist should be without.”
The next A1 rated game was Warlock:
The Avenger
with 86%. “The wonderful world of Warlock
will have you totally captivated and enthralled, stated the reviewer.
“Without a doubt, Warlock
is a fantastic blend of arcade and adventuring action. A gem of a
conversion.”
Car-Vup,
Core Design’s car platforming game, also made it into the A1
Rated group with 85%. “Car-Vup
is crying out to be called repetitive, but instead, it is instantly
compelling and terrific fun to play through all the levels, explained
the reviewer. “It really does make a refreshing change from
your average shoot-‘em-ups that involve blasting away with
machine guns and mortars, which is what most games are orientated
towards these days!”
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