Hi-Tec made tons of games for the CPC based around Hanna Barbera characters, and while they're all pretty similar, they're all amazing fun too! And Hong Kong Phooey is no exception. As the kung-fu dog, you must jump around platforms while staving off the numerous bad guys, with the aim being to track down some bad guy who has escaped from prison. The graphics are pretty good; not the best use of colour, but Phooey moves fluidly and the traps and enemies are well drawn. And the sound effects are good, as they are in all Hi-Tec games. Gripes? The game may be too hard for some, but I found it a lot of fun, and also pretty addictive.

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This is arguably one of the craziest and daftest concepts for a game ever - a policeman who patrols the streets on one of those bouncing space hoppers that you may remember from the days when you were young. What was the programmer of this game on? Anyway, it's your job to clear the streets of criminals, although some of them are carrying weapons, and others may throw nails on to the ground so that your space hopper will burst. The graphics are average, but there isn't much variety in the game, and it's also rather easy. The music is pretty good, though.

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This is one of those games that's rather out of the ordinary. You control a sort of snake which consists of four bouncing balls, which is constantly bouncing up and down while moving left across a landscape filled with hazards. The aim on each level is to collect little balls and balloons while avoiding the hazards. The snake can be made to bounce higher or move faster, but timing is crucial in this game. You don't die instantly if you hit a hazard, but you will lose one of the four balls which makes up the snake; lose all four, and you lose a life. The first thing you notice about this game is the spectacularly awful Spectrum-style graphics, with some of the worst colour schemes I have ever seen. I also found the game to be too difficult, which put me off even more.

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Imagine a two-player 'sport' that's a combination of pinball and Breakout - that's Hot Shot. It's a five-stage tournament in which you fire a plasma ball around an arena, trying to destroy bricks and qualify for the next stage. The ball moves across the screen very fast indeed, but touching it is deadly, and the only way to grab possession of it is to aim your vacuum tube at it. Unfortunately, the ball moves so fast that lightning reflexes are required, and its movement is very erratic and predictable, which means that amassing enough points just to qualify for the second stage relies a lot more on luck than skill. It's fun at first but it quickly becomes frustrating.

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Howard the Duck has been parachuted on to Volcano Island, where the Dark Overlord has imprisoned Beverly and Phil. Howard must collect his gear and head for the volcano to ultimately destroy the Dark Overlord using the deadly Neutron Disintegrator. Once you have worked out how to jump over the mutant slime and collected your gear, you can fly across the river in your solar-powered jetpack (I thought ducks could swim?) and use your mastery of Quack Fu to kill any mutants on your way to the volcano. The game is based on a comic book character, who later appeared in a well-known turkey of a film of the same name. This is a turkey as well, with mediocre graphics and little or no thought having been given to the gameplay, which is incredibly dull, simplistic and tedious.

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How to be a Complete Bastard
(Virgin, 1987)

Adrian has gatecrashed a yuppie party, and to acquire the honour of being the complete bastard, he has to perform all sorts of misdemeanours to make all the guests leave. Ransacking the house will reveal countless odds and ends; finding out their uses is left to you! In addition, there are four meters - the drunkometer, the weeeometer, the fartometer, and the smellometer - which are all self-explanatory. However, there are some things you can only do when you're sober, and other things you can only do when you're drunk. The nature of the game is initially appealing, especially to adolescents, but the way that the rooms are viewed is very confusing, and it's so slow that you'll switch off within minutes.

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The story behind this game is that you play a nerdy guy who, in order to discover what it takes to be a hero, is thrust by his super-hero teacher into several heroic situations, to see how much of a hero he is. Sounds good, but in reality the story doesn't play an important part in the game at all; it's just three levels of dull, very hard dungeon-roaming viewed from above. The first level is set in an Egyptian tomb and you must find keys and various treasures, shoot the obscene amount of bad guys (scorpions, spiders etc.) who never seem to die, and find the exit to the next level - another tomb. The graphics are bad, and the sound is pathetic. More like How to Be a Zero!

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Eddie 'Hudson' Hawkins' friend has been captured by a gang, who force Eddie to steal three works of art made by Leonardo da Vinci in order to build a machine that will turn lead into gold. If he refuses to comply, the gang will kill his friend. The film that this game is based on was a major flop, but the game itself is not bad. It's a platform game with some puzzle elements to it; for instance, you will have to work out how to reach a high window, climb over large boxes (Hudson's a small fellow in this game), or avoid being caught by security cameras. Graphically it's brilliant, albeit very blue indeed, although there is no music and little in the way of sound effects. It's an easy game to get into and is worth trying out, even if Hudson's movements are a little sluggish.

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This is a game I used to like when I was younger, but which has since lost much of its attractiveness. You take the control of a strange-looking guy named Humphrey. When Humphrey walks on the ground tiles, they change colour, and you must step on all of them to clear the stage. Of course, a plethora of creatures spend their time chasing you, while flying bugs only expect you to jump so they can sting you to death. Some tiles move to take you to inaccessible places, while others crumble under your steps or explode. The graphics are not too bad, but the sound effects hardly exist and the animation is slow. Besides, you often get stuck when getting round an obstacle, which does not simplify your task.

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Esmeralda has been captured and Quasimodo the hunchback must rescue her. As Quasimodo, you must jump over the obstacles on the ramparts, dodging spears, arrows and fireballs, and leaping across chasms. Watch out for the knight who is climbing the walls and chasing after you! This was one of Ocean's earliest releases for the CPC. I suppose the game was good for its time, but it feels really old and dated nowadays. Obviously, the graphics are poor and unappealing, but the gameplay totally lacks any excitement. It doesn't have the nostalgia of some of Amsoft's other titles - even if they were bad as well.

See also: Hunchback II: Quasimodo's Revenge.

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