Big K


Blade Alley
By PSS
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Big K #7

Blade Alley

Another day, another trench. Settling into the Interceptor's cockpit, you glance confidently around. The Kempston looks somewhat incongruous sellotaped to the flight deck but you clasp it anyway. Suddenly, a roar of anger fills the launch bay and your Ion Drives being to bleed. Ahead in the valley wait the Ties and the Saucers...

So begins a commendable but flawed attempt to rewrite Buck Rogers And The Planet Of Zoom. Flawed? 'Fraid so. There's a couple of niggling game details which persistently spoil the action. For instance, while you and the enemy scud smoothly across the screen blasting away at each other, the scrolling backdrop looks decidedly hesitant. It doesn't seem to know where it's going. The Photon Disruptors are also suspect - a successful shot seems to depend more on the relative size of the two conflicting ships rather than any real space-jock accuracy. Try as you might, nothing is ever picked off on the horizon.

Killer Kane, Buck Rogers' nemesis, best summed it all up with that celebrated line: "There's nowt in them pants save radishes!" The media clearly owe him a great debt.