Unlike the first episode, this game looks and plays much more like Jet Set Willy. There are many objects to collect and to use to open doors and solve puzzles. The rooms are more open than in the initial game. The game area is huge, with many ladders and stairs to climb. Visually, unfortunately, there hasn't been much change. Chuckie is really tiny and his world is nearly colourless. The gameplay is rather good but it's difficult to avoid the numerous traps and animals that patrol the rooms. You must be pixel-perfect to have a chance to see more than three or four screens.

See also: Chuckie Egg.

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5

It's time for the annual police race through the streets of San Francisco. It's a standard racing game where you must beat the clock and reach the next checkpoint in time. You've also got to avoid trams and cars which might block your way. However, this is almost impossible to do, because the collision detection is truly abysmal; you often find yourself colliding into invisible police cars and trams that are on the other side of the road. As a result, you soon run out of time and can't reach the next stage. Steer clear of this game!

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City Slicker
(Hewson, 1986)

A bomb has been planted in the Houses of Parliament by the dastardly Abru Caddabra and is due to blow up at midnight! As the hero, Slick, you must assemble a device (the BDU) to defuse the bomb. The parts are scattered throughout London and you have to use the Tube to get around, and you must also watch out for Abru! To be honest, the game is rather dull and also too difficult. The graphics are bad, the sound is even worse (and you should hear the imitations of Big Ben's chimes), and the controls are much too awkward.

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5

Space Invaders takes a slight twist, as rather than staying in formation, the aliens can now swoop down on you, making life that bit more difficult. Unfortunately, several of them have a go at the same time, leaving you with little room to manoeuvre out of a hail of bullets. There is one useful facility, in that the bullets you fire align themselves as you move the ship left and right. Despite the colourful graphics (and a pretty good explosion), the fun wears thin, as all the levels are exactly the same.

See also: Classic Invaders, Classic Muncher.

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5

Good old Space Invaders - it's a timeless classic. Just shoot the aliens as they move left and right in formation, as their constant hail of bullets wears down your defences. The graphics are blocky but at least there's colour, and a beautiful melody plays before the start of each level. I like the way it changes as you progress; on the first level, the melody is rather sombre, but by the fourth level, it's quite cheerful. You can even save your high scores! It's a difficult game, though; if you get past the fourth level, you must have ridiculously good reflexes.

See also: Classic Axiens, Classic Muncher.

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7

A Pacman clone that's better than most. You know what to do; eat all the pills in the maze and avoid the ghosts. You can also collect letters to make up words, which will give you lots of points and an extra life. Unlike most other Pacman games, this one is fast and it's really slick as well, but at the same time it's not too hard. Add some good graphics and several different maze designs and you've got a neat game, apart from the power pills not lasting long enough.

See also: Classic Axiens, Classic Invaders.

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7

Three classic games are bundled together in this package - Breakout, Space Invaders and Pacman. Breakout is frankly rubbish; there's only one row of bricks, and pretty soon, another bat appears on the screen so that you're playing Pong instead - extremely bizarre! The other two games aren't bad at all. The graphics in Space Invaders are actually rather good, and it's not too difficult. Pacman looks almost identical to the original, and you'll soon be gobbling up those pills merrily and whizzing your way through the five levels in little time. In summary, forget about Breakout and play the other two games to your heart's content.

See also: Classiques Volume 2.

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7

Three more classic games for you to play, although they're not as good as the ones in the previous volume. There's a racing game where you just drive for as long as you can, avoiding the other cars - not exciting at all. Then there's a cute Pingo clone where you have to push bricks around in order to squash some fluffy monsters, while trying to push the three diamonds together so they touch each other. It would be the best of the bunch if it wasn't so stupidly difficult. The third game sees you as a snake eating pills in a maze; as you grow longer, you must be careful not to trap yourself. This is probably the best game of the three, but it's too easy and quickly becomes boring. So, one OK game and two mediocre ones. Oh, dear.

See also: Classiques Volume 1.

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5

Based upon a great manga comic strip, famous among French teenagers in the 1980s, this game is unfortunately far from the original. You control Cobra and his cyber friend Harmanoid, and you must save a young girl (girls were the main reason for the success of that comic...) from the Evil Salamandar. As soon as the action starts, you know that you're in front of a bad game. The sound effects are exactly the same as in Flash, another game from the same authors, and the gameplay is exactly the same too! Well, they changed the backgrounds and the characters... All you have to do is shoot everything around you. The screen scrolls in every direction but you don't know where to go because enemies come from everywhere and the buildings around you are always the same. Boring and disappointing - you'd better watch the original manga instead.

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4

Based around the little known film of the same name, Cobra is one of the most bizarre film licence games ever! Similiarities between the film and the game are that you must shoot a lot of people, and you must rescue beautiful Ingrid from the evil Night Slasher. But that's where the similarities end. You see, in the game, you must eat burgers to get better weapons (knife, gun and machine gun) and are constantly under attack by dive-bombing ducks, for some reason! Each of the platform-filled levels are pretty much the same (OK, they're identical, but with harder bad guys) and I reckon you'll be bored long before you get to the Night Slasher. Graphics are nothing special (though there's a wicked picture of Stallone on the loading screen), the sound is virtually non-existent, and the whole thing is just so average, it hurts. The movie was a stinker, and the game is little better!

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