Martin Smith @NwodafoMetsys
Reviews
S.W.I.V. (Amiga)
Faultless arcade game, near-faultless conversion.
The Good
Wave after wave of enemy came forth, and it was down to your skill as to whether you shot them, avoided them, or got sent to heaven. The attack waves were designed in a brilliant way so as to be beatable but not easy.
The lack of power-ups was a blessing in disguise, as it ensured that losing a life at the wrong moment didn't destroy your game, and demonstrated that it wasn't just through making the enemies unfairly tough that the game derived its challenge..
Unlike Silkworm, the two player game gave both players a fighting chance, and made for a high level of co-operation.
There were no breaks in play, due to the single-level design, and the Dynamic Loading System brilliantly recreated this, with scarcely-noticable loading sounds (impressive considering how noisy the Amiga's disk drive sometimes was) and no pauses during play
The Bad
You could say the graphics were a little unexciting, and they certainly lacked variety. The game's failure to work with later Amigas was a disaster
The Bottom Line
The game was reputedly called SWIV because the developers felt that it was 4 times as good as the original Silkworm. Like its predecessor it was an overhead-view shooter featuring a helicopter and a jeep. Scrolling vertically, you had both moving and mounted targets to take on, based on land, air and sea. It was all made as one long level, with larger tougher enemies at regular intervals.
By Martin Smith on October 29, 2003
James Pond 2: Codename: RoboCod (Amiga)
Charismatic, original platform fun with lots of surprises
The Good
James Pond himself was a lovable hero, with some great facial expressions and abilities. The enemies are varied across the levels, with my personal favourite being the birds on the games level, with playing cards for wings. Hidden sections abound, rewarding you for taking risks with extra lives and points. Many levels had a secret exit, and this ensured that the game's fun could continue after you completed it.
The Bad
The controls weren't 100% responsive, and some people felt that it was too unclear as to the correct route through. It had one of those annoying levels which had you jumping across the roof of the platforms of a moving train.
The Bottom Line
A platform game with several differences. One of the most popular titles of its day, aided by catchy music, colourful graphics and some imaginative level designs, as well as Pond's unique Inspector Gadget-style stretch ability
By Martin Smith on October 29, 2003
Championship Manager (DOS)
In hindsight, not actually all that good
The Good
The transfer market worked well, apart from one detail. All the statistics you could want were stored, season by season. The player personalities were a nice touch. It was easy to move through information for clubs, players and statistics.
The Bad
Compared to other management games at the time, especially Gremlin's excellent Premier Manager, the presentation was laughable, with boxes of text representing everything, and matches played out with just some vague text comments. This also made it hard to know what you were doing wrong.
There wasn't much to do, with no training, sponsorship, ground improvements or staff hiring / firing. There wasn't as much tactical versatility as there should've been. For no apparent reason, only 80 teams were included rather than the real 92.
It was also heavily dependent on the right formation - 4-2-1-3 and home and 4-3-1-2 away would guarantee rapid promotions as long as the support man was good. Forget having to alter your tactics for different matches, there's no need.
It was almost impossible to sign overseas players, despite a specific option existing for them. Getting young player into your squad was completely random as well. There were too many tricks, such as setting a player's value at maximum and retiring him to get an extra bundle of cash.
Thanks probably to the amount of data being stored, it was prone to crashing and corrupting, although this was worse on the floppy-based Amiga version.
The Bottom Line
A very basic text-based soccer management game, obsessed with statistics and lacking realism, depth or variety. The later games really improved on this.
By Martin Smith on October 29, 2003
Klax (Amiga)
Always seemed more challenging and exciting than Tetris to me
The Good
The concept is simple but ingenius, and having the levels of different types makes for more variety. The warp screens allow you to customize the difficulty somewhat and ensure that the game's got more longevity.
Being able to 'trap' blocks before placing them on top of blocks you get later is a superb twist, and adds a lot of strategy and skill.
The controls are responsive and the small area to deposit the bricks is ideal, as it means there are less fluky combos than in Tetris or Columns
The Bad
Not A1200 compatible, although there may've been a patched version later.
The Bottom Line
A puzzle game in a similar vein to Tetris and Columns, different coloured blocks fall from the sky in one of five columns, and must be trapped using a paddle you move form left to right before being dropped in one of five storage areas, each of which has space for five blocks, to try to create rows, columns and diagonals (diagonals score the most points)
There are 99 levels, each of which sets increasingly difficult challenges. On some you must score a set number of any type of Klaxes (the term for those sequences of 3), but on others they must be diagonal or horizontal, requiring specific strategies, and on others you must score a set number of points or survive for a certain number of tiles.
You don't have to play every level to complete the game. At the start, and after every 5th level, you can choose to move on 5 or 10 levels. The reward for taking on harder levels is two-fold - firstly, you get a points bonus if you complete the first of those levels. Secondly, you lose a level if more than a certain number of tiles drop past the paddle (or if the playing area becomes full) - that certain number is higher if you use the warp.
The paddle can store up to 5 tiles at a time, allowing you to plan ahead for where to place each tile. You can also flip tiles back up, giving you a little more time before they come back - but be careful not to have 2 tiles coming back in different lines at a time, because you won't be able to catch them both.
By Martin Smith on October 29, 2003
Frontier: First Encounters (DOS)
Somewhat Horrendous Irritating Trash
The Good
It's big. Once patched several times, it worked. Sort of. The planned Amiga version was never released, so they weren't ripped off - I dread to imagine how incomplete, bugged and irritating that would've been
The Bad
Basing it on the initial shop release (the one you paid good money to take home, and the one you'd be stuck with for a while if you didn't have a modem (not many did at the time, there isn't a word in the dictionary to describe how bad this is. Bugs permeate constantly, making almost all the features virtually useless. As said elsewhere, the graphics are awful and many gameplay features, especially the combat, where badly designed. David Braben had a very high opinion of himself, but he should've sat back and thought "is this going to be fun to play?"
The Bottom Line
A shoddy, badly designed and rush-released fiasco
By Martin Smith on October 28, 2003
Project-X (Amiga)
Insanely difficult but otherwise the high watermark of Amiga blasters
The Good
The visuals and sound were nothing short of incredible, as with most Team 17 games, and the variety in attack patterns meant that a surprise was always round the corner. The power-up system was delicately designed as well - do you go for plenty of side-shots and homing missiles first, or concentrate on the power of the plasma or laser beam shots?
The Bad
The difficulty level was pitched way too high. Even getting to the third of the six levels was too difficult. Also, it was too dependent on power-ups, and since you lost a selection of those when you lose a life, your game can fall apart very quickly.
The Bottom Line
A demonstration of the Amiga's technical abilities, and a thrilling action game, but most people will never see 2/3 of it.
By Martin Smith on October 28, 2003
Blood Money (Amiga)
Technically innovative and highly entertaining at the time
The Good
The graphics are superb, with the four levels each having a distinct style and the enemies all having distinct character and being brightly drawn. The introduction sequence is one of the best seen at the time. The gameplay is exciting, with a real incentive to progress through. the power-up system works better than most.
The Bad
The pace seems strangely sluggish, and it was harder than it needed to be. Sometimes there wasn't enough trigger-finger mentality either.
The Bottom Line
One of the R-Type style action games of the day, involving you shooting at a diverse range of bad guys, with the screen generally scrolling horizontally. As well as the alien enemies you must avoid contact with the walls, for fear of damaging the ship. Most enemies give off money, which can be spent on the usual range of upgrades.
By Martin Smith on October 28, 2003