Computer + Video Games - Commodore Is Awesome

Hurrah! More ridiculously
funny shoot 'cm
ups from Konamil
Those boys In Japan
have been taking advantage
of the sudden
resurgence In popularity
of the PC Engine
and released spot on
conversions of all their
best cons. This is testament to that and
its a brilliant version of the Bells and Whistles
coin op. The use of humour in video
games has often been a bit crap in the past,
but Japanese games seldom miss the
mark when it comes to belly lets. The
graphics are as with most Konaml games,
spectacular - brilliant colours, hilarious
sprites and smooth scrolling parallax
make this a visual feast. The music is silly
end annoying, but the sampled screams of
pain and delight are a right old laugh. The
gameplay is awesome: on easy level it's a
bit sad and pathetic, but crank it up to hard
and you have an incredible challenge. With
two players the game takes on a whole new
light, with fierce competition for bonus
goodies and extra weapons. To put it bluntly.
only minor graphical differences separate
this from the coin op. Another essential
PC Engine title from the masters of the art.
Go get HI
FRANK O'CONNOR
AV
A A
THE BELLS, •
THE BELLS! 11)
The extra weapons in this game
are very peculiar indeed. Clouds
with little smiley faces float
around the sky and if you shoot
them a bell will fail out. Collecting
a golden bell will endow you with
a big pile of points, but blasting
them is a much better idea. The
bell will bounce up the screen
and if you're lucky it'll change colour.
Different coloured bells do
different things, but most give
you some kind of power up You
can get ghost ships that work like
multiples, shields and various
kinds of laser. There is a down
side to all this though, because
the bells turn black if you shoot
them often enough and collecting
one of these is very bad news.
TWIN TWIN BEES
As with all good shoot 'em ups.
Bells and Whistles has a two
player mode Both players get to
fly around the screen at the
same lime, blastin9 and competing
tor points Playing in two
player mode effectively doubles
your firepower and as a result
the game gets much easier. Best
of all though is the heated argument
when you snatch your
mate's extra weapons just as
he's about to collect them. When
you both have a lull complement
of weapons, the screen becomes
a mess of bullets and laser fire.
You also have a beam up option
(like in A
-a
massive burst of name!
Type)
w h i
REVIEW
Pt al
,
l
a
t
BY a
A Iso Whistles known tells as Twin the story Bee, of Bells a young and
boy and his pet helicopter and crab
combination. Confused? Yup, it's a
Japanese game and it's as weird as
anything they've come up with before.
Bells and Whistles is a vertically
scrolling shoot 1
the em baddies u p are lovely! This poor
young
w h e
lad
r
loses
e
his helicopter/crab
combination when it sets out to rescue
e a vkidnapped e princess from the
clutches n of a mighty thingy. The reason
for the rather odd name of Bells
and Whistles soon becomes apparent.
The fact is, the skies are full of
bells! Little puffy white clouds conceal
these bells and when shot, drop
them in your path. Collecting these
as you fly up the vertically scrolling
screen will endow you with stran9e
and magical powers. You'll need em
too, because the landscape is seething
with frenzied cute things who
make you squeak when they grab
your beak. Kill lem all...or die trying.
611111 ICS
SOUNDS
PLAYABILIPt
LASTABILITY
88
86
89
88
88
061