There are oodles and oodles of Christmas compilations about at the moment, but here's one of the meatiest. Only four games long, its true, and equipped with quite a hefty price tag, but what games they are!
WEC Le Mans
A great, great racing game. Just about everyone labouring away on this year's bumper crop of driving games claims to have worked on one version or another of this one, and it's easy to see why. The car sprites are good and big, the acceleration, braking and gear change controls all work well, and everything runs very smoothly indeed. My only really criticism would be that it's a titchy bit repetitive. Rating: 83%
Last Ninja II
Aha! And now to Last Ninja II, probably the best game of the pack, and an old YS Megagame. There are six levels of System 3's patented 'bit of beat-'em-up/bit of puzzling' action, with lovely 3D graphics, loads of objects to collect, energy to be gained and bad guys to fight. It's pretty, well thought out and as addictive as a very addictive thing.
Rating: 92%
Double Dragon
For some reason Jonathan was rather kind to this one last year, but goodness knows why. The graphics are okay, I suppose, and there's a 'credit' system (meaning losing your last life doesn't necessarily mean you have to pack it all in), but generally I found the beat-'em-up action repetitive (yup, again!) and anatomically unconvincing. Still, there's always the two playyer option, which adds a bit of life to the proceedings. Rating: 69%
After Burner
Well, um, what can I say? It's just like the coin-op. Graphically its fine, great even. The speed with which the sprites whang around the screen is quite incredible, the effect of the whole thing is rather confused and uncontrollable. There's really very little to do - just dodge enemy fire (circling around the edges of the screen should do the trick), launch the odd missile and, um, that's it. An incredible feat of programming alright, but just doesn't cut it as a game. Rating: 68%
1st January 1990
