THERE’S always a fair splattering of compilations
around, and never more so than in the Spring. Software houses finally realise
that most of last year’s games have come to the end of their lifespan in
full price form, so they start to think ‘Why not make a few more quid out
of a product by putting it out on a compilation?’ It requires no more
programming effort, little PR and has a long lifespan on the shelves of any
retailer. All that’s required is to pay off the programmers —
either with a lump sum, or royalties (a percentage of each unit sold) —
and organise the duplicating, which, when it comes to compilations, is
troublesome at the best of times. Then finally there’s the name to come
up with. Not necessarily in that order though — remember The
Magnificent 7 (which is available free if you subscribe to CRASH this
issue) with eight games!
Are these Great Games, as with Gremlin, or All-Stars, as in The Edge’s
case? Or perhaps they’re just a Top Collection from Elite or could they
be from an arcade, as with both US Gold’s releases this month. Whatever
you call the anthology of amazing accomplishments (even Bogie’s
Pick from Top Ten Software sounds interesting) it’s bound to appeal
to the average street buyer. All those games for just X amounts of pounds, it
sounds too good to be true. Be warned, though, most of the time it is —
especially with cheap compilations. Take a good look at the versions of the
games that you’re getting — is that International Karate
or IK+? Are you buying the best version of Uridium around?
There’s also a + version of Uridium! Are you going for a
compendium of past blasters (like Four Smash Hits from Hewson), or
some recent games (as in Ocean’s We Are The Champions)? Or
perhaps even a mixture, like The Edge’s Easter offering,
All-Stars (from the four year old Brian Bloodaxe to the
four-month-old Inside Outing)? Be careful, and don’t be totally
convinced by voluminous packaging — it looks nice, but can be a real pain
to store.
ELITE HIT HARD
Elite, who have been relatively quiet on the game front
this year, currently have two compilations in the market place under the Hit
Pak label. Top Ten Collection has been out for a while now, but
it’s still worth a mention — if only for the chocolate box that the
four cassettes come in. Only a pound a game doesn’t seem like bad value
for money. After all you can play all your (very) old favourites like
Airwolf (a CRASH Smash) and both the Saboteur games. The
attractive Critical Mass is also in there alongside
Thanatos, which is graphically impressive at first but lacks any
compulsive gameplay.
If that’s not enough of Elite games you can also get Volume 3
of the 6-Pak. Unless they bring out some more games soon they’ll
be hard pushed to produce a fourth volume! Anyway this month’s super six
from Elite include some real classics and some real clangers. Let’s get
The Living Daylights out of the way first — it figured as one of
the worst games of 1987. On the good side there’s the tremendously
playable Ghosts ’n’ Goblins and Paperboy. You
also get both of the Dragon’s Lair games — although
Escape From Singe’s Castle is the only one worth bothering with.
Finally, we have Enduro Racer — one of the best race games of
1987.
Elite aren’t the only ones out with ten games for a tenner. Gremlin
Graphics are currently pushing the second in their 10 Great Games
series. Arcade adventurers are well catered for with Auf Wiedersehen
Monty (voted Best Arcade Adventure 1987 by CRASH readers), Thing
Bounces Back (before even appearing on the Spectrum — only the
sequel was released) and Jack The Nipper II in Coconut Capers (a CRASH
smash back in Issue 46). Cartoon fans can’t complain at the inclusion of
Basil The Great Mouse Detective or even at Mask. Beat
’em up fans are also pampered with Death Wish III and
Samurai Trilogy. Then, finally, we have the now obligatory
‘previously unreleased game’. Is The Duct too good to
release on its own? Or is it just not worth bothering with?
CHAMPIONSHIP SPRINT
Ocean’s proud boast this month is that We Are
The Champions (well they did gain your award for Best Software House 1987,
so what do you expect?). I’m a bit confused, though, if Ocean are the
champions then how come they only produced one (and that under the Imagine
label) of the five games on their compilation of the same name... But
don’t say anything or you’ll probably get beaten up, judging by the
contents of We Are The Champions. The fabulous Renegade
(whose sequel, Target Renegade, is reviewed elsewhere in this issue)
appears alongside IK+ (that’s the new version, which we smashed
in the Christmas Issue) and the controversial Barbarian (like
Renegade, probably, also underrated). If that’s not enough beat
’em up violence for you there’s also Rampage, an arcade
tie-in that, like its companion Super Sprint, sold surprisingly well.
It may average at two pounds a game, but at least we can all remember what
they’re all about!
You may have seen the CRASH Smash, Gauntlet, bundled in a Limited
Edition with Gauntlet II for £9.99. But don’t forget that
it’s also available on US Gold’s Arcade Force Four
collection, alongside two other Atari coin-op conversions, Road Runner
and Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. You’ll also get
Namco’s Metrocross for the £9.99 asking price. All the
games have initial appeal but the games are generally on the boring and
repetitive side.
Again on the arcade tie-in front, and also from US Gold comes Data
East’s Arcade Alley — although this isn’t quite as
impressive. Only Kung-Fu Master, with 56%, gained over half a century
in CRASH. It makes you wonder if any Data East conversions will work on the
Spectrum.
One good thing about a company producing many games for the Spectrum is that
when it comes to compilation time (it hits all of us eventually, the thought of
something for almost nothing is too good to be true) they have a wide choice of
products. Softek International are one such company. Now, with almost
more labels than Debenhams they’ve chosen to release their next succulent
selection under the banner of The Edge. Their last compilation was supposedly a
Collectors’ Edition but this one should appeal to Softek fans even more
— you can almost track the life of the Spectrum with it. From way back in
’84 come Psytraxx and Starbike. 1985 brings us such
memorable games as Brian Bloodaxe and That’s The
Spirit. 1986 was a very good year if I remember correctly — we had
Bobby Bearing (which would still do tremendously well nowadays) and
Mindstone, a credible adventure. And who could forget 1987 with such
delights as Inside Outing and Xecutor. They’re all here
— good and bad, old and new — and for only £8.99 it’s
got to be worth it!
NOW WHAT?
Virgin Games’s Now Games series enters its
fifth episode next month. Now Games 5 also contain a good mix of
games, old and new. The ageing International Karate (that’s NOT
the version in Issue 49) joins the likes of the riotous Street Hassle,
fun-filled Kat Trap and Prohibition. For those who require
more stimulation than blasting the heads off a couple of liquor-swilling punks
then try Hacker II and Rebel — both are superbly
puzzling games.
I spy with my little eye three great games from Databyte. Yes, the
people that brought you the CRASH Smash, Spy Vs Spy, and The
Island Caper have finally decided to release the third game in the series,
Artic Antics, in a special Spy Vs Spy Trilogy pack. All fans
of the MAD magazine characters should immediately proceed to the nearest
software outlet and purchase a copy — even at £9.99 (£14.95
disk) it’s super value and unbelievable fun. Ali games are one or two
player and feature Simulvision (a constant split screen display which displays
you and your opponent — computer or human) allowing you to keep an eye on
what your opponent is scheming.
Also in trilogy form is Time & Magick from newly-formed
Mandarin Software. This time you get three Level 9 adventures: Lords
Of Time, which is older than time itself (well, almost), Red
Moon, a cover Smash from Issue 20 and The Price Of Magick, also a
Smash. £14.95 on cassette AND disk (strange, but true).
Budget compilations have never been impressive; some things never change.
You’ll now be able to get Four Great Games Volume 3 (no relation
to Ten Great Games) from Tynesoft’s Microvalue range.
Nice to see Equinox on there — it was Raffaele Cecco’s
first game, before Exolon and Cybernoid — one for his
fans only. Finally, Top Ten Software have Bogie’s Pick 1
and 4 for your delectation. Bogie’s first pick is pretty good,
with Herbert’s Dummy Run and Black Hawk (both very old
Smashes). But with the fourth I’m afraid Bogie’s lost his touch.
However, both are only £2.99.
CRASH Overall percentage and review issue numbers are given after each game. N/R denotes ‘not reviewed’.
