'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 August
1991 when Sonic the Hedgehog continued to leave a blue blur across the
review pages, the CES hit Chicago, the classic computer game,
Boulderdash, made its way onto the NES and forthcoming movie licence,
Terminator 2, adorned several front covers...
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For
the 11th issue of Mean
Machines, Julian Rignall
reported back from the CES show in Chicago, the biggest electronics
show in the world. Among the upcoming games on display were
Sega’s upcoming titles, including Toe Jam and Earl,
Decap
Attack, Donald Duck,
Mercs,
Phantasy
Star III, Shining in the
Darkness,
Streets
of Rage and Golden Axe II.
A pretty darn good selection of games for Sega. Topping the charts this
month were Shadow
Dancer on the Mega Drive, Super
Marioland
on the Gameboy, Nintendo Cup
on the NES and Mickey Mouse
on the Master System.
EA’s Hockey
arrived on UK shores for the Mega Drive and, following in their John Madden
success, the game came away with high praise. “Programmers
Park Place have done it again,” explained Julian,
“and Ice
is to that violent high-speed sport what John Madden
is to American Football… The action is fast and furious, and
it’s packed with subtle and not-very-subtle-at-all
touches… another superlative sports simulation from EA, and
ranks as an utterly essential purchase.”
The Commodore 64 classic, Boudlerdash,
made its belated appearance on the NES, coming away with an impressive
haul of 92%. Rich commented that “Boulderdash
was never a game to impress graphically, but Data East have spruced up
the original with more variety in the dackdrops and better sprites.
Combine this with the classic playability of the older 8-bit versions
and we’ve got an extremely impressive title.”
In a special lookback to pre-Mean
Machines
days, the Master System platform game, Psycho Fox,
is given the ‘Classic Game’ treatment with 90%.
“Sporting a weird storyline and even weirder graphics, Psycho Fox
is one weird game,” stated Julian, “but
it’s challenging, playable and very addictive too. Easily one
of the best platform games available on the Master System, and is a
vital addition to any self-respecting player’s
collection.”
Kabuki
on the NES also gained a 90% rating and ‘Mega Game’
status. “Kabuki’s
quite a novel game,” explained Rich. “Well, have
you ever seen a game where the main character dispatches his foes by
lashing out at them with his massive hair-do?” |
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It was a special Terminator 2
front page special in ACE
issue 47 as they looked at the film and an in-depth preview of the
upcoming game from Ocean Software. ACE
also reported back from the CES show on the latest happenings and
forthcoming titles in the world of gaming. Main headline news was the
break up of Sony and Nintendo over the proposed CD-Super Famicom and
the imminent release of the Philips CD-I.
There was blue fever running through the industry as the effects of Sonic the Hedgehog
were still being felt as further reviews of the spiky mammal emerged.
Receiving another praising, Sonic added an ‘ACE
Trailblazer’ accolade to its ever growing list of awards with
a 925 rating. “In its attempt to create a game that would do
for the MegaDrive what Mario has done for Nintendo,” Gary
Whitta commented, “Sega deserves credit for not coming up
with just another uninspired clone, but a game that’s
genuinely original in its approach to the platform genre and still
immense fun to play.”
Chuck
Yeager’s Air Combat
also flew in on the PC to pick up a ‘Trailblazer’
with a rating of 900. “Definitely NOT
for boy racers who can’t handle more than
up-down-left-right-fire,” explained Gary, “but if
you seek a more challenging and longer-lasting experience, you
can’t go wrong.”
Origin’s latest worlds of Ultima
release, Martian
Dreams proved to be another
RPG hit on the PC with a 928 rating from Steve Cooke.
“Definitely one of the better RPG scenarios of recent years
and the message is clear – this is one tall story
that’ll have you over the moon in more ways than
one.”
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Over on the 16-bit computers, Amiga
Action dished out a slew of
accolades with its 23rd issue. Granted, many were for the Super League
Accolade Recommended rating of 75%-84%, but there was an impressive
handful of Super League Accolade rated games of 85% or over.
Gaining an impressively high rating of 93% out of the reviewer,
Psygnosis’ shoot-em-up Amnios
easily lifted a Super League
Accolade. “the
multi-direction scrolling is smooth and fast. Even with the screen
chock-a-block with moving sprites the game doesn’t slow down.
On top of this the gameplay is superb… Put simply, Amnios
is
the best shoot’em-up that has been released for a long
time.”
P.
P. Hammer from Demonware
received an 88% overall score for its
addictive little platform title. “Straight down to
facts,” the reviewer declared, “the sound
isn’t brilliant…. The graphics are better and have
some nice touches. So why do I keep coming back to have just one more
go, and another, and another and so on? Basically the game has a
certain something that makes it so addictive.” Other
impressive Super League Games included Manchester United Europe
(87%),
Deuteros
(87%), Toki
(86%), Prehistorik
(85%), Proflight
(85%) and
R.B.I.
Two Baseball (85%).
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In the land of the 8-bit computers, the ‘New Look’
Crash
also took a look at the upcoming Terminator
2
game, this time on
the humble Spectrum. The Crash
team (Richard, Nicko and Mark), along
with former staffers, Stuart Wynne, Robin Hogg and Phil King, all came
up with the definitive top 100 Speccy games ever produced. With the
first part this month (100 to 76), notable entries included 3-D
Deathchase (no. 98), Manic
Miner
(no. 95), Laser
Squad (no. 90) and
Gauntlet
(no. 83). In the reviews pages, only Prince
of Persia
on the
SAM Coupe made any impression with a fantastic 96%. “Prince
of Persia is undoubtably the
best SAM Coupe game yet,” stated
Nick Roberts, “its combination of superb gameplay and great
graphical content really shows off what the SAM can do!”
Landing a ‘Zzap! Gold Medal’ award in issue 76 of
Zzap!64
was Turbo
Charge from System 3. The
third person arcade racer
garnered a top rating of 96% from Stuart Wynne. “The racing
shoot-‘em-up format has never been faster or more graphically
stunning,” enthused Stuart. “Disk and cart
versions, in particular, benefit from great intermission screens, but
even with a C2N this eye-burning speed merchant is
unmissable.”
Amstrad
Action offerd a double dose
of Master Games with issue 71.
First up was Hero Quest
with a 91% from Frank O’Connor.
“In many ways it’s better thatn the board game,
commented Frank. “it’s more accessible, much faster
and at the end of the day, much more fun. One of the best games of the
year and THE
board game conversion.” Turrican
2
went even
better with a 95% as Frank stated that the
run-‘n’-gun platformer “is a quantum leap
in game design on the Amstrad. Rainbow Arts have pulled out all the
stops, used real imagination and made Turrican
2
the single best
shoot-em-up on the Amstrad ever.”
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