You have been hired as a mercenary to gain access to an alien mothership. To do this, you must fight through eight levels containing several waves of aliens, and a big end-of-level alien. On completing each level, you then enter a maze where you must pick up a key and a blueprint of the mothership; you'll also be given a password so you don't have to complete previous levels in future games. The aliens are very mean and you'll need some skill to dodge them, although you can collect power-ups which make you invulnerable for a while or make you go faster. If the game consisted only of the space shoot-'em-up section it would be just about OK, but the maze section is so frustratingly difficult that you'll give up on the entire game after a few goes.

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A rare example of a stealth-'em-up on the CPC, you are cast as a ninja sent into an enemy stronghold via a rubber dinghy, with your mission to retrieve stolen computer discs and make your escape via a convenient helicopter on the roof. There are many guards roaming the corridors, guard dogs running around, and security cameras that will shoot you if they see you. However, anything you find on the floor (rocks, shuriken, etc.) can be a deadly weapon! Anyway, the graphics are fine - dark and suitably moody though very lacking in colour - and the playing area is large, though not too large. As for the music - well, there isn't really any, and what sound effects there are aren't very good. But still, a really good game. Ninja fans will love it; just don't get too attached to the main character because he dies in Saboteur 2!

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7

Guide the intrepid explorer around a jungle maze in this delightful game. You can only escape by collecting the four pieces of the lost amulet that are scattered in the labyrinth environment. Armed with only your trusty sword, you have to make your way through a mass of marauding wild creatures that appear on all sides from the undergrowth. The graphics here are cute, whereas the music and the sound effects, like the game itself, are simple yet effective.

See also: Knight Lore.

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The Sacred Armour of Antiriad
(Palace, 1986)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

You are Tal, the last hope for mankind's successors in a post-apocalyptic world which has been destroyed by the invasion of a hostile alien race. The legendary sacred armour of Antiriad, an advanced anti-radiation suit, is the only weapon available to overthrow them. You have to find the suit and its components that are strewn about the landscape and then to use it to free your people. This is one of the most lavish games ever to be produced on any 8-bit machine, let alone the CPC - the graphics are simply brilliant. The sound effects are adequate, whereas the opening music is excellent. If anything, the only problem with this game is that it's far too hard to complete without cheating!

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This is a fighting game based on an ancient martial art known as sai karate, in which you face one opponent at a time. As well as being able to kick your opponent karate-style, you also have a long stick to hit your opponent with, as well as blocking your opponent's moves. You start with a white belt and try to work through the ranks, up to a black belt, and then working through the eight dan levels. There is a wide variety of moves you can execute, and you'll soon find out which are the most effective ones. The colourful and well animated graphics are accompanied by some suitably Oriental jingles, and there's a different background for each level. It's a good game that will appeal to beat-'em-up fans.

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The Viet Cong launched a suicide mission on the US Marine Corps headquarters and have captured your commanding officer. Now you must penetrate the Viet Cong's base and rescue him from their clutches. This is a two-part platform game in which you must jump over chasms, avoid hidden mines, shoot Viet Cong soldiers, and blow up the occasional jeep, tank and helicopter. You're armed with a gun, a supply of ammunition and a limited number of bombs, and you can buy extra weaponry at shops, which also act as restart points when you lose a life. The graphics and sound effects are very good (lots of explosions!), but it's too difficult for my liking, especially since there are too few restart points.

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6

Ian St. John and Jimmy Greaves used to host a football show on TV which was apparently rather popular, and these two personalities appear on this quiz game which will suit football anoraks nicely, but leave everyone else (myself included) bored. Up to four players take turns to answer three types of question - home questions are about more recent football, away questions relate to 60s and 70s football, and the rare derby questions are based on trivial facts. To liven things up a little, you get to see a footballer scoring a goal, which lets you know if you were right or wrong. There are other nice bits of animation to see and the graphics are lovely, as is the music, but answering question after question about football just isn't my thing.

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Similar to R-Type, here you control a baby dragon that has to rescue its mother. On the way you encounter weird metallic creatures such as mechanical tigers, cyborg bulls and armoured cobras who act as half- or end-of-level bosses. Power-ups can be picked up by shooting special pills that are littered around the scenery. Thankfully, unlike other similar games, when you die you don't lose them, even after a new continue. Your dragon also has a unique feature; your tail is impervious - only its head is vulnerable. This proves very useful when you're surrounded by enemies and their fire, as you can respectively destroy them and block with it. Nice looking, but a rather slow scrolling affair that is made difficult by the rather small screen area.

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7

Salamander
(Imagine, 1988)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

Deep in the heart of space, evil forces have gathered, and it is your task to destroy them in this clone of Nemesis. There are two main sections; firstly a side-scrolling flight through the innards of the beast at breakneck speed in which you have to work hard to avoid the shifting scenery and relentless roving worm monsters, and a second top-scrolling journey through a decidedly packed asteroid field. A variety of power-ups are available, but considering the degree of difficulty here they tend not to be kept for long. The worst aspect of this game though, has to be the sheer lack of effort on the part of the programmers who quite clearly dragged the Spectrum version over (which actually has more colours!) without any due thought or consideration for the Amstrad's superior capabilities.

See also: Nemesis.

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Samantha Fox Strip Poker
(Martech, 1986)
Reviewed by Guillaume Chalard

Remembering those early teen years when the hope of seeing an awfully digitised picture of a big-breasted pop star could keep me two hours in front of my screen, I'm really glad to have grown older. But, well, that was a way to practice poker. The graphics are ridiculously bad, the computer's strategy is rather strange, and you must have a great imagination to distinguish anything erotic on the few MODE 2 screens that you'll see. Keep this game if you're a collector, or if you're a fan of Samantha...

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