With hindsight, it's amazing that people could sell full-price games that were as bad as this. The only thing to do here is trying to jump with your bike over double-decker buses (which proudly bear the inscription 'AMSTRAD'). The problem is that you must start your jump exactly at the right speed, if you don't want to crash either on the buses or on the landing track. And when I say exactly at the right speed, that's exactly! 25mph instead of 23mph won't do. Add to that the impossibility of controlling accurately the speed of your bike, and you obtain an extremely irritating game, even if the graphics are rather good!

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Three Weeks in Paradise
(Mikro-Gen, 1986)
Reviewed by Alain Schroetter

To enjoy Three Weeks in Paradise, you must be a fan of 'Dizzy-like' games and be ready to rack your brains over complicated riddles. Your goal is to release your friends who have been caught by a tribe of cannibals. To this purpose, you must collect items and find how to use them. The game has good MODE 0 graphics and nice animation. Unfortunately the sound is a bit weak, and above all the game is very hard. Nonetheless, there is a peculiar compulsion to try and go farther into the game.

See also: Everyone's a Wally.

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Boni the skull has been taken away below the trap door and as Berk, you have to rescue him. This time, you can take control of both Berk and Drutt, who have to work together to make progress. Unfortunately, the game isn't as good as The Trap Door; for whatever reason, it's not as much fun. Berk may move faster, and there may be more monsters to encounter, but once you get to the second level, you'll find that things become much too difficult.

See also: The Trap Door.

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The resistance has captured some spaceships in preparation for an attack against the Intergalactic Empire. However, they need to collect some Klystron pods for the spaceships to be useful. You control a spaceship and have to enter an underground passageway to collect a Klystron pod on each level, and then fly to the surface again with the pod in tow. However, each passageway contains guns which will fire at you, and the levels quickly become harder, with narrower passageways, more guns, and even reverse gravity and invisible walls. This simple little game is in fact one of the all-time classics. Despite its very retro graphics, it's unbelievably addictive, and if you haven't played it, you haven't lived.

See also: Thrust II.

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After collecting all the Klystron pods, the resistance decides to settle on the planet P2112, but there's something wrong with the weather. There's a maze of underground passageways to explore, and you must once again collect sixteen pods and bring them to the surface in order to fix the planet's atmosphere. In other words, it's very similar to the previous game, but the graphics have improved considerably (although the line-based graphics in Thrust had their own appeal), and your spaceship is a lot harder to manoeuvre, especially when you're towing a pod. For this reason, I don't think this game is as good as its predecessor, but it's still a fun and challenging game to play.

See also: Thrust.

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You're on a mission to destroy an enemy fortress, but the enemy aren't going to take to that. The mission consists of four sections divided into three sub-sections, which see you flying over cities, deserts and the sea. As well as the enemy's fire, you've also got to dodge skyscrapers when you're in the cities. The game is let down a bit by its silly controls; to accelerate and slow down, you have to hold down the fire button as you press up or down, and you often find yourself slowing down when you want to change height, leaving you exposed to enemy fire. Despite this, it's still possible to progress, but it's not exactly enthralling.

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This is a poor 3D shoot-'em-up in which you control a robot that can metamorphose into a fighter 'plane at will. Enemies fly towards you, and you can shoot them or avoid them. If you're flying, you'll also need to avoid the scenery on the ground. You'll also need to collect spheres to maintain your fuel levels. So why is the game poor, then? Your firepower is mediocre and you can only shoot enemies at very close range, and collecting spheres is almost impossible; by the time you realise that there is a sphere nearby, it's too late to collect it, and your fuel runs out very quickly. The graphics are actually very good, although the colour scheme makes the game look dull - and it is a dull game to play.

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Thunder, thunder, you known the rest. A blatant cash-in on the cheesy kids' cartoon. As Lion-O, your task is to recover the lost eye of Thundera - the power behind the Sword of Omens from the clutches of Thundercat nemesis the vile Mumm-Ra, "the ever living". A simple hack-'n'-slash platformer; you have to reach the end of every level as fast as possible within the given time limit and in your way are an infinite number of Mumm-Ra's mutants to stop you. As well as picking points to rack up your score, you must rescue your fellow felines along the way. A dull repetitive affair, it looks as bad as it plays. One for fans of the show only.

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The evil scientist Madame Q is threatening to take over the world by creating armies of mutants. You must infiltrate her underwater fortress and kill her. The game consists of four levels which are divided into two parts. In the first part, you must swim underwater, avoiding any hazardous objects, to reach one of Madame Q's bases. The second part is a platform-cum-shoot-'em-up affair. Most parts have a very large enemy to defeat at the end, but none of them are particularly challenging. The same can be said for the rest of the game, which is so easy that I completed it on my first attempt! The graphics are very good and well drawn, but the underwater sections are fairly dull and you are given far too many credits. You'll complete the game quickly and then forget about it.

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Ryu Ken Oh has kidnapped all the children from your village, so someone - you, of course - must rescue them. You are Lee Wong, a student of the Oh Rin temple, and on your journey along the Tiger Road, you will encounter all sorts of ninja, samurai and other warriors. The levels are all rather short, but each one is different, and it's nice to have the action divided into neat segments. Every few levels, you will meet a particularly nasty enemy that must be defeated before you can continue. You can smash urns to collect different types of weapon, and some enemies will be almost impossible to defeat unless you possess the correct weapon. The graphics aren't that good, and Lee Wong looks rather strange, but the music is wonderful and the game itself is fairly decent.

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