1st May 1991
Back With A Vengeance
Almost every games publisher is pumping new life into budget releases at the moment. Now US Gold get in on the act with their early hits.
Kixx are one of US Gold's budget labels and they've just released eight old games, each retailing for £7.99. Here's the full list and the ones worth bothering with.
Vigilante
We reviewed this one way back in ST/Amiga Format in issue 11. Originally it got 70%, so has time eroded the rating? Ermmm, yes.
The gameplay is positively sluggish and the graphics look like they've been lifted from an 8-bit machine. The sound is boring as well. You must duff up the thugs that come on screen by moving the joystick in any of eight different directions - that's about it, really. There are far better beat-'em-ups around at a budget price, without the budget gameplay. 35%
Thunder Blade
Way back in 1988, Thunder Blade was toutted as the Christmas number one. It never made it. The programmers took on too much when they tried to convert this helicopter shoot-'em-up. The biggest weak point is the positively dire control method - simply moving up and down requires considerable thought and four pairs of hands.
Animation slows down markedly when big buildings come into view and you can even fly the rotors straight through passing buildings. 34%
World Class Leaderboard
Golf on a computer is always tricky to implement but Access Software make an excellent job of it. The gameplay is smooth and the animation is crisp and realistic. You can play on four courses at four different levels - novice, amateur, expert or professional. There are some quite tricky holes on the course too. Well worth eight quid. 82%
Gauntlet II
Excellent game, this. The big feature is the four player option, which few games implement, even today. Wander around a labyrinth as either a Wizard, Elf, Warrior or Valkyrie. Gameplay is superb, with wicked adversaries, like the "It" monster, and loads of other great fatures.
Sampled voices add to the excitement - you can't get away with shooting food, for example, without a voice pinpointing the guilty player. 86%
OutRun
Blimmin' heck, this really is going back a few years. The game isn't much cop anyway. You drive a super-car around a motorway race track, while avoiding lorries, bushes and VW Beetles. Go for one of the more recent racing games instead. 38%
Road Blasters
Originally from Atari, this is basically OutRun with a gun. You drive a super-charged car with a nice line in power-ups. Stay on the road and shoot all the cars and helicopters, but be careful to avoid the road-mines.
The action in this one is severely dated, and even at £8 Road Blasters is a bit of a rip-off. It's a far better idea to save up and buy something special like Stunt Car Racer which is much more fun and more of a challenging 16-bit game. 43%
Blasteroids
Blasteroids is Asteroids with nice backdrops and some power-ups. The idea is to shoot rocks as they whizz about the screen by rotating and thrusting your ship.
The game is very dated though, even with the attractive graphics and quick gameplay. The teeny sprites and duff sound tend to put you off. Worth a look if you're a starved shoot-'em-up fanatic or an ardent Asteroids fan. 62%
Barbarian II
The original Barbarian persuaded loads of punters to invest in an ST. Palace decided to expand on the first game by varying the opponents and introducing an exploring element.
As this kind of game goes, this one is still a blast. There are some juicy sound effects to accompany your sword chops and the creatures certainly look weird. 56%
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