=============================================================================  AMIGA SOFTWARE UPDATE ============================================================================= C O N T E N T S 1 - New releases 2 - Reviews * Tomato Game - Psygnosis * Lethal Weapon - Ocean * WWF - Ocean Latest Game Releases This list was compiled by Martin Jansen exclusively for Newsflash Magazine. It contains all new releases and coming releases (MARCH/APRIL 1993). Amiga Games ----------- Ruff n' Tumble -------------------------------Renegade Soccer Kid -----------------------------------Krisalis Apocalypse -----------------------------------Virgin Frontier -------------------------------------Virgin Desert Strike --------------------------------Virgin Street Fighter II ----------------------------US Gold Populous II ----------------------------------BullFrog Syndicate ------------------------------------BullFrog AV8B Harrier Assault -------------------------Domark Road Rash ------------------------------------Electronic Arts Space Crusade, The Voyage Beyond -------------Gremlin Piracy on the high seas-----------------------Int. Computer Entertainment Fatal Strokes --------------------------------Int. Computer Entertainment Abandoned Places II --------------------------Int. Computer Entertainment Fire Force -----------------------------------Int. Computer Entertainment Chuck Rock II --------------------------------Core Design Space Hulk (Easter 1993) ---------------------Electronic Arts AmberMoon ------------------------------------Thalion Universal Monsters ---------------------------Ocean The Chaos Engine -----------------------------Renegade Trolls ---------------------------------------Flair Dalek Attack ---------------------------------Admiral Joe and Mac Caveman Ninja --------------------Elite Darkseed -------------------------------------Cyberdreams Euro Soccer ----------------------------------Flair Sleepwalker ----------------------------------Ocean History Line 1914-1918 -----------------------Blue Byte Dragons Lair III -----------------------------ReadySoft Ragnarok -------------------------------------Mirage Sensible Soccer 1992/1993 --------------------Renegade Sabre Force ----------------------------------Krisalis Troddlers ------------------------------------Storm FA Premier League Football -------------------Ocean Prime Mover ----------------------------------Psygnosis Woody's World --------------------------------Vision Software Dong -----------------------------------------Global Software No second Prize ------------------------------Thalion Into the Lions Den ---------------------------Thalion D-Day ----------------------------------------Loriciel TV Sports Baseball ---------------------------Accolade Nigel Mansell World Championship -------------Gremlin B.C.Kid --------------------------------------Factor 5 RoboSport ------------------------------------Maxis Cytron ---------------------------------------Psygnosis BAT II ---------------------------------------UBI-Soft REVIEWS GAME : BILL'S TOMATO GAME PUBLISHER : PSYGNOSIS REVIEWED BY : PETER WIJGERSE The story: The game starts with an animated intro showing you the following story. After being loaded into a truck you know it's ketchup time for you and your tomato girlfriend. (You're als a tomato, in case you didn't notice). The two of you decide to jump of the truck and bounce back to the forest. But alas, in the forest you stumble into and old beanstalk and here it is, that your girlfriend get's kidnapped by a vampire bat. So it's up to you to climb the beanstalk and rescue her. The game: The game consists of a series of rooms that you have to traverse. After completing several rooms you are transported back to the beanstalk where you must try to reach one of the higher branches to start the next level. To complete each room you have to reach the right side of it. Ofcourse you start on the left side. As you are only a tomato, there's not much you can do. The only thing is bouncing (and getting splattered). But there are several items at your disposal to make life a bit easier. Each room has a platform layout, riddled with nasties. Contact with one of them means instant ketchup. You start at a trampoline and pressing the right mouse button sends you of into the air. But before jumping of you have to place the items at the correct positions in order to get across the room. The items you can use are ventilators, use them to give you horizontal speed, trampolines, try to land on them to jump further, and stopper blocks, use them to stop your horizontal speed, and the jack-in-the-box, he will give you an upward boost if you land on him. But, as this is a puzzle game, you only have limited amount of the tools for each screen. On some screens you only have the fans, on others you have the whole collection. After safely reaching the other end (and you have to land on the conveyor belt), you'll be given a password for later use. Each level has 10 rooms in it and some bonus rooms. The levels are based around a theme like toyland or a factory. The difficulty grows steadely, but you can keep up with it. It's not to hard for little children so they can have a go also. Sonically it's very good, with nice spot effect and a funny little tune playing throughout. These can be turned off however. Graphically it's clear and simple, not top of the bill amiga graphics but sinplified functional graphics. The tomatoes are nicely animated and the intro is also a pleasure to watch. One very important fact, with the game comes a package of tomato-ketchup. Well, that wasn't what I meant, although it's true. What I meant is that the inner box in which the game comes is made of recycled, bio-degradable material. I only hope other companies will follow this example. Great work. The score: Addictiveness 85% Sound 83% Graphics 85% Playability 88% Lastability 90% Packaging 99% !!!! ------------------ Total mark 88% ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GAME : LETHAL WEAPON PUBLISHER : OCEAN REVIEWED BY : PETER WIJGERSE The story: After defusing a bomb before the bomb-squad arives, and doing it wrog to make matters worse, detectives Riggs and Murtaugh are placed back on the street as patrolmen. But the discovery of a suspicious amount of weaponry they find out there an internal investigation working on this too. But being patrolmen they are not deemed responcible enough to help. First they must prove themselfes by closing some long-standing files to win back their badges and take on this case. The game: The game start in the police department, where you can choose between Riggs or Murtaugh. The first is better in habd-tohabd combat and has a good stamina, the second has better weapons. It's up to the type of mission you choose, which one is the most effective. You can choose from three cases. Taking in some drugs racketeers, stop a group of terrorists from placing a bomb and save Leo Getz, who's been kept hostage. After completing these three cases you can accept the forth. The game follows the now standard ocean-platform-shoot'm-up layout. You must travel along different sceneries in order to reach your goal. Along the way you can kill baddies, pick up extra ammunition, health points and bonus points. You can run, duck, jump shoot and punch your way through each level. Some puzzles are include, but they're not very brain-taxing. They merely consist of pressing the right button in order to open the next door. You can also swim, but in polluted water you may find yourself dying rather quick. At the end of each (sub) level you are confronted with the end-of-level baddie who can take more hits then all the others together. After completing a level you are taken back to the police dept. where you are given a code for the next level. After reading the above you'll notice lots of similarities with other Ocean games (Hudson Hawk and The Adams Family to name two). This doesn't mean they are bad (the two games mentioned afore are not bad either), but you have to keep in mind that it's much more of the same. The game looks and sounds very good and very console-like (is that a pro or a con ??). It's a tried and tested formula that works. It moves very smooth and the sprites even look like their movie counterparts. So I guess it's up to you to make the decision. If you liked Hudson Hawk, and want some more, this is the perfect follow-up for you. If this is not the case, stay clear of this one too. The score: Addictiveness 80% Sound 83% Graphics 82% Playability 80% Lastability 83% ------------------ Total mark 81% ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Game : WWF EUROPEAN RAMPAGE TOUR Publisher: OCEAN Team : Arc Developments Review : J.P.Snelders This standard beat'em-up game has a pretty predictable scenario, however I'll explain it anyway. As you probably guessed by reading the title there are four WWF-wrestlers on tour troughout Europe and they have to defeat several tag teams and then you will be able to challange the Legion of Doom for the champion- ship. When you start the game you will see a very slick intro with nice digitized pictures of all 4 WWF wrestlers accompanied by a short list of weight, height and favorite moves etc.Then you have to choose 2 of the 4 WWF Wrest- lers: Randy savage, Ultimate warrior, Hulk hogan and Bret Hart. Each wrestler has his own favorite song that will be played as you choose them. Then you will enter a menu where you decide to play alone or in 2 player mode, you will also be able to choose your control (player 2 always uses the joystick). Sean Mooney will introduce you to your first fight in London and then you'll get the shock of your life. Your loyal Amiga has been infected with a severe virus called C-64. The graphics are lousy and the joystick control is slow, but the worse part is that you are running around in the ring and you can't find your opponent's collision detection. In the end there are only six opponents to beat twice. Then you are ready to take up the fight against the Legion Of Doom ,that's the whole thing. O.K., there are plenty of moves (I counted 28) and after trying a lot you will be able to win your first fight. But that's just the trouble with this game: the boring pixels and sprites and the even worse 2-D backdrops are so annoing that you'll probably won't take the time to learn all the moves. WWF European Rampage tour is a game that is not worth buying although the intro does look very good and the intro sound effects are pretty neat,but the game itself does not have any appeal whatsoever. INTRO GAME TOTAL SOUND : 80% 30% 55% GRAPHICS : 90% 20% 55% PLAYABILITY: - 35% 35% LASTABILITY: - 15% 15% ----- ---- ----- TOTAL MARK : 85% 25% 40% =============================================================================  AMIGA SOFTWARE UPDATE =============================================================================