You are a mercenary aiming to obtain the three parts of the C70-Magnum – a very powerful weapon indeed. Searching for this weapon involves surviving the great fortress that is Sagar. It's full of traps and enemies. A well drawn loading screen is the precursor to a MODE 0 menu system which leads to the game itself. The playing area is small but colourful and smooth. It reminded me of Gryzor to some degree. The baddies spawn endlessly in this flip-screen game, making progress very difficult indeed. Even the power-ups don't last long before you're dead again. Not one of Dinamic's greatest efforts.

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6

The mad scientist, Dr. Cirilus, has discovered a way of extracting energy from crystals. You have to help him extract this energy by linking crystals of the same colour together. Each level in this fast-paced puzzle game consists of a grid, and you must swap neighbouring crystals so that a line of at least three crystals of the same colour is created. When this happens, the crystals explode and new ones appear. Once you've obtained the required number of crystals of each of the seven colours, you can go to the next level. The game is based on Bejeweled, and it is so addictive it should carry a health warning! With excellent graphics (including differently themed graphics every five levels) and a catchy tune that increases in tempo as your time limit nears zero, this is arguably one of the best games ever released on the CPC.

10

Taking the part of Axel Foley, you're out to stop the big crime lord who is smuggling weapons and worse. After a well drawn loading screen, a brilliant rendition of the movie's soundtrack meets your ears. An options screen allows you to play the game outright or practice one of the four stages. The stages are all themed around existing genres such as Robocop, Chase HQ, Commando and Doom – yes, Doom! Each stage is different, so there's something here for everyone. The difficulty varies, as do the graphics – which overall are quite good. The sound, apart from the impressive music, is adequate. I was surprised by this one; it's rather good!

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8

The programmers at Elite probably wanted to restore their honour after the disastrous conversion of Ghosts 'n' Goblins to the CPC. Once again, the fight between good and evil is at stake in this perfect clone of the arcade classic. After a short introduction, you are cast into the battle, featuring ugly monsters to smash in, bottomless chasms to avoid, and bonuses to collect. At the end of each of the three levels, another large monster awaits to scalp your long blond hair. The presentation is quite polished, but the game is extremely difficult and frustrating. If you persevere, though, it is possible to finish it with the nine lives you have, provided you have not broken your monitor with rage before then.

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7

Biff
(Beyond Belief, 1992)

Biff is a chimpanzee, but he's been very naughty and his mother has kicked him out of the treehouse. In order to please her again, he must complete various tasks. This is an arcade adventure in which you roam around a landscape, picking up objects and using them in certain places. Each time you do so, you score some points and get a clue as to what you need to do next. To make things a little easier, the next object to use flashes when it's on the screen. All of this means that the game has a very linear structure because you cannot choose what task you wish to perform next, and although critics may dislike this style of gameplay, I don't mind it too much. However, it's a shame that the game is a Spectrum port; everything is green, and there is no sound at all.

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7

Big Foot's girlfriend has been captured and has been imprisoned in a cage in the National Park, and the only way that Big Foot can free her is by finding the pieces of wire scattered around the park, connecting them to the cage and running a high voltage to blow the lock. The playing area is quite big and there are a lot of hazards – the most common being molten lava! In fact, more often than not, you'll keep jumping into them and losing lives. The graphics are gorgeous, but Big Foot seems to have a mind of his own and the game becomes annoying.

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5

Biggles
(Mirrorsoft, 1986)
Reviewed by Pug

Jim Biggles, the brother of the famous World War I fighter pilot, learns of a German secret weapon that could change the course of history. He travels back to warn Biggles – and so the adventure begins. There are two parts to this game, the second part requiring a password. The first part is split into three mini-games. In the first one, you pilot your aircraft along a scrolling playfield. The other two are flip-screen affairs involving shooting, long jumps and avoiding guards. The MODE 0 graphics vary between games, but carry an overall moderate standard. An interesting tune plays upon loading with good in-game effects.

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7

Play the hero within a movie as the audience watches! This consists of various stages or movies, such as taking part in a western shoot-'em-up, being trapped in a maze, and the final showdown beat-'em-up, etc. It delivers an odd but appealing challenge where each level is a totally different game style, so it never gets boring and it has that "just one more go" addictiveness. All the graphics are in MODE 0 and vary between games, but overall, they maintain an average standard. Sound-wise, it's imaginative and also includes digitised speech during the game. It's a brave attempt at mixing different games into one box – even if the third 'film' has some dodgy collision detection.

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6

Barney is a circus performer who needs your help to complete a series of events and please the public. Each level involves circus themes which require skill and timing. There are four levels – tightrope, unicycle, balloons and trampolines. Each has its own charm and hazards – some have more of the latter than others. The graphics are average and collision detection is tight. A pleasant tune plays and old-fashioned sound effects reign supreme. It's a blatant clone of the arcade game Circus Charlie, and done via a Commodore 64 conversion.

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5

Based on the fairly low-key film of the same name, this is a strange and unexciting little game where the aim is to walk through China's streets, sewers and temples, before taking out the mini-bosses (the 'Storms', for those who have seen the film) and finally the end boss, and rescue the kidnapped girl. There are three interchangeable characters – Jack Burton (an American trucker), some kung fu expert, and Egg Shen (a wizard on a floating cloud). Although the game is unbelievably short, it makes up for this in its difficulty – if one of your three characters dies, you can kiss goodbye to finishing the game. This is never more frustating than in the sewers, where you just cannot avoid the sewer monsters! The graphics are awful, and the characters move like they're made of wood. Not a terrible game, just really boring.

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5