Big K


River Raid
By Activision
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Big K #10

River Raid

Convincing conversion of Carol Shaw's celebrated blast-'em-up that not surprisingly earned a podium in the Big K Hall of Fame some time back. Gamesters worth their salt will already know the scenario well. The objective is to fly the River of Death and crank up mega-scores by totalling battleships, choppers, enemy jets, balloons - in fact, pretty much anything that moves.

So far, so what, some may say! Well, the magic comes via the design. The vertically scrolling river is divided by bridges into sections which further subdivide into watery warzones of unpredictable peril. Initially enemy resistance is fairly puny but the pace soon hots up. Beginning with Bridge Seven land-based tanks lob-bombware carelessly into your path, and come sector seventeen the sky is aflame with the flak from various gunships 'n off-sore armoury.

To complicate matters further, there's a great number of unsympathetic animation although the action does seem somewhat diluted in comparison with its Atari cousins. Y'know, I'm sure the ROMs are wilder! Even so, this is more than lukewarm and, in my estimation, something of a compulsory purchase.