Beach-Head

The game features superb sound effects, which don't come across too well in a review but I think you'll get the picture when I say that they make the graphics appear puny.

A call to General Quarters and a beach head invasion are the stuff of which generals are made but Beach Head, a typical American import from US Gold, gives you the opportunity to fight the war single handed.

Ocean have done a great job converting this Commodore 64 game to the Spectrum. They've managed to keep the same superb 3D graphics which sent the original version to number 1 in the charts. If they were impressive on the '64, on the Spectrum they're astonishing. The sound is also effective, proving that the Spectrum can do more than just beep.

Beach Head arrived in Britain from America with plenty of pre-publicity as one of those new generation US games that had to be seen. U.S. Gold are now busy bringing all sorts of famous games under license like Zaxxon (already available for the CBM64 and hopefully soon for the Spectrum). The graphics of Beach Head on the CBM64 were very good and many people wondered how good they could still be on the Spectrum. The result makes for a favourable comparison - there's hope for Zaxxon as well then!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to your computer, the bombers are back with a vengeance. Beach Head throws you in the deep end with a challenging naval battle, forces you into an invasion by land, and then leaves you to storm the enemy fortress.

One of the Commodore 64 gamester's most popular releases, Beach-Head has now been implemented on the 48K Spectrum - courtesy of the combined might of US Gold and Ocean. Personally, I never found it that brilliant on the 64, but certainly it's easily as good on the Speccy.