A BLAST FROM THE PAST:- WALKER FROM PSYCNOSIS ---------------------------------------------- What am I doing reviewing WALKER in an A1200 Disk Magazine? Well there are a couple of enhancment's that are enabled when you load it on an A1200, but I'll get to them later. I picked up WALKER at the 'All Formats Computer Fair' recently for £11. Not bad considering WHSmiths are still selling it for £29.99. Well I won't go into the background story of WALKER because lets face it, who wants to know the background story to a shoot-em-up, and that's exactly what WALKER is, a superb, adrenaline pumping shoot-em- up! After the game has loaded, you will see a short intro, not very good and not much to do with the game when I think about it. The next thing that hits you is the title Music. Very good, in a Techno-Disco-Rock kind of way. You then have the choice of playing in EASY mode or ARCADE mode. If you choose EASY you only get to play the first two levels. This and the fact your opposition are pretty naff and are easily disposed of! This level is great for practising the game and getting to grips with the controls and distinguishing the different enemy's. I will concentrate the review when playing in ARCADE mode. When the game starts you are in control of a WALKER. A machine very similar to those seen in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK on the forest moon of endor. Z and X move your walker left and right and the mouse controls the walkers gun sight. The aim of the game is simply progress through the level going from right to left killing and maiming absolutely everything! The graphics are superb, the walker its self is a pure work of art. The way it lumbers across the screen in a stunningly realistic way is a joy to behold. The background graphics are very good, but you have to remember this was written for an A500 so the colours are restricted. The enemy sprites are also very well detailed, with the tiny soldiers, although small, looking very nice indeed. You progress through 4 levels. Berlin, Los Angeles 2019, Middle East and the Great War 2420. The backgrounds changing level to level. There is absolutely masses of speech when playing this game on an A1200 due to the extra chip ram, phrases such as "Die scum bags!" emanate from your speakers, together with "They are history Sir!" the list goes on. The S.F.X are superb, with the screams of dying soldiers as they fall to there deaths from buildings, ear shattering explosions, clanking metal, machine gun fire, wow! You have to play this game with the volume right up to get the full benefit. Also due to the A1200 68020 processor things don't slow down when there is a lot happening on the screen, this makes for better playability. What's better as well is that someone has released a P.D program that installs WALKER to Hard Disk! Well to some it up, a fantastic blast, especially suitable for players in Germany because they can see what it is like to actually win a war! Fabulous graphics, superb sound, wonderful playability and you will come back to it time and time again, just to see if you can progress that bit further. Don't pay £30 for it, try and pick it up for around a tenner. SEEK AND DESTROY ---------------- BY MINDSCAPE ------------ The best way to describe this game is to call it Desert Strike from above. What I mean is you are looking down on a helicopter viewed from above. The surrounding scenery scrolls around your helicopter through a full 360 degrees. There are 14 Different missions to complete and each mission is split into different stages. The missions take place over desert, sea, snow and jungle. You have a variety of different weapons, ranging from a machine gun (which in two player mode is controlled by player 2) to heatseekers to air to ground missiles plus many more. These are selected with the Function keys. I'd class this game as a shoot-em-up, with small sections of strategy thrown in when you have to land and rescue POW's. On loading the software automatically detects the A1200's CPU and chipset and enhances the game accordingly, with extra speech, smoother scrolling and extra graphic effects. Unless you have two drives you will find that disk swapping can be a bit annoying as the game comes on 4 disks. The graphics through out the game are very simple, the surrounding ground detail is very sparse, they could have done a lot more considering the power of the AGA chipset. The sound on the other hand is superb, the soundeffects are great the speech excellent and, are yes, the music. The Title music has to be one of the best pieces of game music I have ever heard. A fabulous drum beat, catchy melody, and superb samples, especially the guitar. The snatches of music that accompany the intro screens to the levels are also superb and really add a lot of atmosphere to the game. After the first couple of go's you will think it is very hard to stay alive, but if you bear with it, you will learn what to avoid and where to move to stay alive. Response to the Joystick is excellent, there is no delay, and the helicopter go's were you want. They could have gave you a couple of extra lives at the beginning of the game, but that is not really a criticism. To sum up, a very enjoyable game, if you like shoot-em-up's I'd recommend you get this game. I picked mine up for £9.99 at a show, so you should be able to pick up a copy rather cheaply. Don't be put off by the simple graphics, it's the gameplay that matters in the end. Remember to play the music through a hi-fi, it's fabulous!!! ALIEN BREED II (AGA) -------------------- TEAM17 ------ I picked this game up for a tenner as well. It plays exactly the same as the first one, but with very good graphics, great speech and S.F.X There are 17 levels, and my instructions said that I would be able to pick from 4 characters, but on loading you can only choose from two!! The idea of the game is the same as AB Special edition, wipe out all the aliens, and clear the base. It is much harder than the first game, as there are a lot more aliens on the screen at any on time (They also move a lot faster!). There are some smart intro screens that accompany some of the levels. The game however does not have the same 'FEEL' or the same 'ATMOSPHERE' as the first game, I can not put my finger on it but something is missing! It might be the fact that there are now more than one type of alien. These other types of alien don't look remotely sinister, and one of them fires a laser from its head, hmm, very silly!! If you liked the first game, you will like this even more. If you didn't like the first game, well, don't bother. Reviews (C) of Paul Horton for Channel Z 1994.