Computer + Video Games - Commodore Is Awesome

II••• MACHINES: ST, AMIGA,
SPECTRUM. CBM 64.
••••• SUPPLIER: MELBOURNE HOUSE
hi
- SPECTRUM AND CBM 64 E9.99
P.- VERSION TESTED: SPECTRUM
P11.-
REVIEWER: EUGENE LACEY
R
How
I
do you get into the
lucrative arcade licence market
C
without coughing up the
obligatory E telephone numbers of
readies :
f Easy: just start up your own
arcade l arm and convert the
games
9
yourself.
9
With such logic has
Mastertronic entered the fray.
Despite 9 the modest smoke
screen S of putting the game out
on T their Melbourne House label,
Roadwars A is just such a
product N How well it has done
D
A
M
I
G
A
.
NOVItAtiltol'04 ••
,
130105&O P P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
da PUUJI WARS 9 0
in the arcades has yet to be
assessed, but it certainly looked
mighty impressive on the
Amiga. It has many of the right
ingredients mentioning "road"
in the title Ithus cashing in on
the driving game crazel and
having a two player option for
those gregarious arcade types.
The player controls a
Battlesphere moving down a
roadway Ithe Battlesphere
actually stays still and the road
scrolls towards you, but it all
amounts to the same thing-
The sphere moves from side to
side and the gun turret on top
rotates.
To get to the next level, all
the shaded blocks moving past
the side of the road must be
blown away but naturally the
'1•
,,
,i
0
,
0
1
t
o
k
r
i,
1
0
0
0
•
1
road is strewn with hazards.
These include balls, spikes,
laser barriers and hovering
satellites.
The balls give the
Battlesphere greater firepower if
hit but things get really tough,
the Battlesphere has the handy
ability to do hedgehog
impersonations and roll up into
a ball. This protects it against
most hazards.
One major problem can be the
other Battlesphere that hangs
around. If this is controlled by
the computer, it plays a fairly
passive role, but obviously if in
the hands of another player, it
can either be a help, knocking
out threatening balls, Or a real
pain in the posterior, barging
you off the road.
Converting this game onto
the spectrum has meant that a
lot of the frills have gone. The
multicolour graphics have
become monochrome and the
odd beep is no substitute for
digitised sound.
Unfortunately, as so often
happens, stripped of its gloss
the game turns out to be
nothing special at all. Once
you've got the hang of the first
few hazards, you have to go
through half a dozen levels
before anything new comes
along.
The graphics are well drawn
and smoothly animated and the
whole package is very slick, but
in the overcrowded market of
shoot em-ups this is not one
that stands out.
0- GRAPHICS
10
- tw- VALUE
PLAYABILITY
S
O
U
N
D
a
6
6
7