Turrican
(Rainbow Arts, 1990)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

An evil demon, Morgul, has returned from another dimension to haunt humankind. Your mission is to destroy him. You have to traverse levels filled with mutant hordes, jumping around exploring large areas, shooting enemies with a large arsenal available to you, while picking up various extra weapons along the way, all against the clock. Face some nasty bosses at the end of each stage and sometimes halfway through in order to proceed. Finding secret rooms laden with power-ups is a joy, as is unleashing your awesome special weapons on everything around you. Nothing in the way of music, but some nice sounds nonetheless. As it was converted by Probe, it's a very attractive game and a pleasure to play.

See also: Turrican II.

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As Ben McGuire of the USS Freedom Forces, you must once more strap on your Turrican Assault Suit to destroy The Machine - a cyborg dictator who threatens galactic peace with his vast army of space mutants - and wreak revenge upon him for killing your fellow crew. Essentially following the same format as before, within a time limit our hero has to steer through more large levels consisting of various worlds with secret bonus-filled rooms and destroy some bad ass bosses at various stages, which as before have to be killed in a particular way. Again, you have a bevy of powerful upgraded weapons to utilise against the marauding aliens that come in all shapes and sizes and from all directions. Superb graphics, nice menu music, good effects and solid fun.

See also: Turrican.

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In this side-scrolling adventure, you take the role of a brave explorer as you follow in your deceased father's footsteps on a quest to find the legendary Elephants' Graveyard, and lay claim to all that lovely ivory. You start your journey in a desert, and from there, you must find objects to help you in your quest (knife, gun, bullets etc.) while also solving puzzles along the way and fighting many a bad guy, from sword-wielding Arabs to scary zombies. Overall, the game has a nice Indiana Jones feel to it, but it's a tad too hard (you'll be walking along and a bad guy will leap at you with no warning, or a rock will just fall on your head!), and the graphics, while detailed, look like they've been ported straight from the Spectrum. Still, it's quite enjoyable, and there aren't many games like it on the CPC. Worth a blast.

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7

You're behind the wheels of one of the most powerful cars that money can buy - the Ferrari F40 - and you're racing it through five stages to beat the clock. Watch out for the other cars, though, and the scenery which lines the track! The game seems a bit easy at first - I reached the fourth stage on your first go - but it's not. However, it is extremely fast, which isn't surprising when you see how blocky the graphics are. The sound consists of engine acceleration noises, but there's a nice tune on the title screen.

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7

Ulopa Cariken's family once owned a powerful magical amulet, but when he was just two years old, an evil druid called Maldur massacred his family and stole the amulet. It was then broken into 23 pieces which are scattered across the land of Gaspary. Ulopa is now 16 years old, and as Ulopa, you must retrieve all the pieces of the amulet. With 23 levels of platform action, and one piece to collect on each level, it won't be easy. The graphics are fantastic and there is a fairly wide variety of monsters to kill, although it can be difficult to spot them against the very detailed backgrounds. Sound effects are sadly lacking, but this doesn't detract from what is a really rather good platform game.

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8

Those of you who remember the arcade game Robotron 2084 will recognise this shoot-'em-up. Trapped inside a small arena, you basically have to survive until your ship arrives to pick you up and take you to the next arena! Among the enemies to be destroyed are snakes which split in two when you shoot them (making it even tougher to survive), robots which shoot bullets at you or home in on you, lasers, and exploding bombs. If you somehow survive, there's a bonus level where you pilot your spacecraft through a meteor storm. The graphics are simple yet colourful, and the sound effects do their job. Each level is the same as the previous one, but if you're looking for a quick game, you should try this.

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7

I can barely bring myself to write about this game, but it is terrible. It's 2112 AD (as you might have guessed), and robots have taken control of our everyday lives. You and your robotic dog, Poddy, have to find nine ROM units and place them in the correct order to shut down the robots. The colour schemes are sickening, what little sound there is is rubbish, and the control system, which uses a series of silly icon menus, is almost unworkable. This is one of the worst games I have ever had the misfortune to see, and not only that, I can't find any of the ROM units.

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Typhoon
(Imagine, 1988)

Take on the alien hordes in an F-14 fighter and a helicopter through five levels of destruction. It's strange how the aliens also use 'planes and helicopters just like those on Earth, but never mind. You're in a fighter 'plane for the first and fourth levels, flying into the screen and shooting a few formations of 'planes. These levels are fairly easy, although the collision detection is very dodgy. You're in a helicopter for the other three levels, which are vertically scrolling affairs. These levels are a bit tougher, with more enemies to contend with and bullets to avoid, although you can use bombs as well as bullets. The graphics are OK and the sound and music are both pretty good, and overall, it's a nice, albeit easy, shoot-'em-up.

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