Samurai Trilogy
(Gremlin, 1987)

You are an aspiring warrior hoping to attain the title of Samurai War Lord, under the guidance of your master, Chu Yu. You must fight against other warriors in two disciplines - karate and kendo (fencing) - before duelling with four of the best samurai warriors. Before each fight, you must select a strategy to adopt, and you must also select three of twelve types of training to improve your prowess. Then you must choose your attack and defence tactics; choose wrongly and your opponent could have a big advantage over you. All these tactical decisions that need to be made detract from the actual fighting, and it's difficult to know how your decisions affect you and your opponent. The graphics are fairly good with some splendid backgrounds, and the music is suitably Oriental, but the game itself is poorly executed.

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5

Those naughty elves have spiked Santa's Christmas pudding, so for one day only, you have to take over as Santa and deliver presents to all the children around the world. There are three levels, taking Santa over Lapland and then across the Atlantic Ocean, before heading over the houses and dropping the presents he has collected on the way. While flying the sleigh, you must dodge or shoot all the Christmas presents coming at you (!) by firing snowballs at them. It's a pretty appalling game, and far too difficult for the young children that this game would be aimed at. Overall, the graphics are mediocre, and the only good thing about the game is the excellent rendition of various Christmas carols.

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When it was published in France, in 1986, Sapiens was really out of the mainstream. It was the first CPC game to introduce fractal graphics - I'd never seen a game with so many trees and bushes in it before! And its plot (your main objective is hunting to survive) was very refreshing. The playing area is really huge, and you'll never see the same landscapes twice every time you start a new game (remember, they're mathematically generated!). But the screens all look the same, which quickly becomes boring. That's a pity, because the control panel is handy - once you've worked out how to use it - and there are many things to do, such as making a spear, carving a flintstone, and killing a bear. But most players won't have the patience to discover all the joys of the prehistoric era.

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6

Play Ilan the Crusader as he battles against the Saracen hordes. On each of the 40 levels, you must look for the Saracen chief and blow him up with a hand grenade. You will need arrows to do this, and to shoot some wooden walls and other moving enemies (crosses with flashing coloured balls on each end - bizarre!), but each arrow can only be fired in one direction, although there is a plentiful supply. The graphics and music are absolutely dire, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the game is written in BASIC (it isn't, though). There is also no option for starting from a particular level, and after playing only a few levels, I became bored. Take my advice; don't play it!

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3

The SAS are the élite fighting force, able to tackle the roughest terrain and the toughest missions, and this is a really tough mission. You're on your own as you race through desert, jungle and swampland to destroy four enemy bases. There are four levels consisting of two parts; the first is a shoot-'em-up where you go berserk with your gun and grenades, avoiding enemy fire, while the second sees you armed only with a knife, stabbing the oncoming enemy soldiers (who are all unarmed, thankfully). The graphics, sound and music are all excellent, but as luck would have it, the game is too difficult, particularly the second part of each level - maybe the SAS could use it in their recruitment training!

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6

A group of terrorists are holding people hostage in various locations and threatening to blow up a nuclear power station. In a situation this serious, you call the SAS. You control one SAS gunman at a time as you attempt to stop the terrorists from carrying out their plans. You start at a farmhouse where the terrorists are based, watching out for enemy fire, grenades and mines. That's probably the only one of the four levels that you'll have the chance to see, because the game is far too difficult. The main problem is that the action is just too fast; the gunman you control, and the terrorists, move so quickly that you just can't avoid enemy fire. The graphics and music are quite good, but it's a shame that it's wasted on such flawed gameplay.

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4

The forces of evil are taking over the universe, and the wizards which once ruled the world have fallen under its spell. As a warrior, you must first become a wizard by gathering three scrolls guarded by the fearsome Tam Lin beasts, and then you must free the wizards who have been captured in the Palace of the Clouds. The graphics in this game are some of the most breathtaking I have seen on the CPC, and have to be seen to be believed! There's no music, but the sound effects are good. It's a great game, too, with lots of enemies to kill, although there's a lot of jumping around, as the warrior moves somewhat gracefully through the air.

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8

Sauvez Yurk
(UBI Soft, 1990)

You and your friend Yurk, a dragon who was rescued in a previous adventure called Orphée (released several years before this one), have entered another world and must escape from it by collecting some magic crystals. Not a very original story, is it? This is a rather nice text adventure in which you select commands by clicking on icons instead of typing them. It makes the game more accessible to those who are new to text adventures, and you aren't left struggling to find the correct words. The graphics are beautifully drawn in the high-colour, low-resolution mode - a change from most French text adventures - but the font is rather difficult to read. There's also some delightful music to accompany this very agreeable game.

See also: Orphée.

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8

The first time I played this game, I was really baffled. Even my friends who owned a C64 stopped giggling at my CPC when they saw these graphics! The sprites are huge and colourful, and the animation is as fast as it can be. Remember Trantor? Well, this game is even better! Okay, the action is sometimes a little confusing, and the game is rather difficult. But there are three totally different stages, each of which you can access by a code. The last one, in which you're an eagle, is really amazing. I really think this is the most gorgeous game for the CPC, and one of the very best; programers had (at last) mastered the machine!

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9

Scalextric
(Leisure Genius/Virgin, 1987)

The slot-car hobby that many of us spent our childhoods with is somewhat badly recreated here. Either a computer or a friend can race on a track. There are lots of pre-designed tracks available, or you can create your own. However, the racing itself is dull; the track is too narrow and overtaking is therefore extremely difficult, and if you crash into your opponent, the race is over instantly. The graphics are average, but there's hardly any scenery on the track edges. The sound effects are very limited as well, and the drone of the engines becomes irritating. Indeed, creating your own tracks is probably the best part of this game!

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