Received: from uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com by s.ms.uky.edu id aa01526; 17 Jan 91 13:25 EST Received: by uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com; id AA05324; Thu, 17 Jan 91 10:17:22 -0800 Received: by limbo; Thu, 17 Jan 91 09:33:24 pst Message-Id: <9101171733.AA29268@limbo.intuitive.com> From: The Moderator Date: Thu, 17 Jan 91 9:33:21 PST Subject: Digital Games Review Digest, #19 Reply-To: Digital Games Review To: Digital Games Review Digest X-Mailer: fastmail [version 2.02] Digital Games Review Digest, Number 19 Thursday, January 17th 1991 Today's Topics: Genesis: Inspector X Genesis: Shadow Dancer - The Secret Of Shinobi Genesis: Thunderforce III NES: Megaman III NES: Snake Rattle 'n Roll GameBoy: Gargoyle's Quest PC: Pool of Radiance PC: Bards Tale III Amiga: Full Metal Planet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: milton@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Milton W. Kuo) Subject: Genesis: Inspector X Insector X, published by Hot B, is a translation of the coin-op game by Taito for the Mega Drive/Genesis. The story behind Insector X is simple - the evil insector Baglon threatens to overrun the world with its army of insects. It is up to you, insector fighter Kait, to destroy Baglon's empire and restore the balance between nature and the insects. Pretty stupid story, but a story in this game is not really necessary. The graphics in Insector X, while substantially better than the graphics in the coin-op version, are only average for a Mega Drive game. The use of only one background screen in Insector X is readily apparent due to the game's two-dimensional feel - a trait the Mega Drive version shares with the coin-op version. However, unlike the coin-op version, Insector X on the Mega Drive doesn't suffer from any annoying flicker or slow down - even with a lot of objects on the screen at once. Another improvement found in the Mega Drive version lies in the music. The silly music heard in the coin-op has been replaced with a soundtrack that is markedly better. The improved graphics and music are the basis for Hot B calling Insector X a "Hyper Real Shooting" game. Gameplay is for the most part just like the arcade version - one button is used for shooting the "normal" weapon while another button is used for firing the "special" weapon. However, the Mega Drive version of Insector X uses the third button on the controller to toggle the "special weapon from air (missile) to ground (bomb) assault. Furthermore, as in the coin-op version, Insector X for the Mega Drive allows the player to become powered up by picking up special items. Unfortunately, Hot B programmed Insector X to get harder as the player becomes more powerful. For example, a bee that will normally shoot one bullet will shoot five when the player is powered-up. To make the game even harder - the bullets are also A LOT faster! This stupid "feature" in effect totally negates the usefulness of power ups. These minor shortcomings aside, Insector X is an extremely faithful adaptation of Taito's coin-op with the only real differences being the better graphics and sound. Insector X is every bit as frustrating as the coin-op and anyone who has ever played Taito's will love (and hate :-) Hot B's rendition. Graphics 6 (average fare - nothing fantastic) Sound 6 (not bad, but not enough to get a 7 or higher) Gameplay 6 (powering up seems senseless in this game) "Funness" 7 (every bit as challenging as the arcade) Overall 7 Inspector X, for the Sega Genesis, by Hot B ------------------------------ From: milton@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Milton W. Kuo) Subject: Genesis: Shadow Dancer - The Secret Of Shinobi Shadow Dancer - The Secret Of Shinobi is Sega's newest Shinobi game for the Mega Drive/Genesis. Based loosely upon their coin-op of the same name, Sega has produced a real winner here. Unlike the coin-op version which had crude, unappealing graphics and gameplay, Shadow Dancer sports the crisp graphics and gameplay associated with many of outstanding Genesis titles currently available. The premise behind Shadow Dancer is that following the debacle of the Neo Zeed organization in The Revenge of Shinobi, the chief character Joe Musashi goes to New York to spend time with a friend. Upon arriving in New York, however, Joe finds his friend mortally wounded combatting a new threat, the Union Lizard - a group of ninjas and monsters led by the hideous reptilian, Sauros. Accompanied by his dog, Yamato, Joe sets off to destroy the Union Lizard organization and thus avenge the death of his friend. So begins the story.... For those familiar with the coin-operated Shadow Dancer, the real attention getter when first playing Genesis Shadow Dancer are the much improved graphics. Sega does an excellent job using the line scroll feature of the Genesis in the first scenario where the city is in flames. Every level in Shadow Dancer has some neat graphics or graphical effects. In one of the levels, you go through a cave where in some places things are so dark you can't even see yourself, much less the enemies! The bosses at the end of each level are also well drawn and animated, from the first boss who covers his face in pain every time he gets hit to the spinning circular saws of Macho Man (you gotta see it to believe it). Since Shadow Dancer is a Shinobi game, there will inevitably be comparisons between Shadow Dancer and the Revenge of Shinobi. Comparisons between the two games is somewhat pointless because I feel that the two games are too different for a fair comparison. One is an ori ginal effort (and an excellent one at that) while the other is an adaptation of a coin-op game. Nonetheless, I'll try to give a fair comparison. As some may have already surmised, if you are expecting Shadow Dancer to be another Revenge Of Shinobi in terms of similar gameplay, you will probably be disappointed. For one thing, one of the features that many people like about the Revenge Of Shinobi is the fact that the ninja has enery and takes multiple hits before he dies. Shadow Dancer is modelled after the original arcade hit Shinobi and one hit from the enemy usually means death (some enemy can be touched so long as the weapon they attack with does not touch you). Some may view this as a fault in gameplay whereas others (including me) view this as keeping with the original feel of the arcade game. Further differences between the Revenge Of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer include the lack of a ninja magic select feature on Shadow Dancer. Like the arcade, Shadow Dancer selects the type of the ninja magic you get with each level. One final major difference between Shadow Dancer and the Revenge Of Shinobi is in the soundtracks for the two games - the Revenge Of Shinobi definitely has the superior soundtrack. However, the music on Shadow Dancer is not bad - it's just got very difficult act to follow. The only real fault I can find with Shadow Dancer is that on the easiest setting, the first four levels are much too easy. But with three different difficulty levels to choose from plus a non-shuriken mode, even experienced players are challenged - especially on the fifth and final stage... watch out for those hidden ninjas! If you've ever played the coin-op Shadow Dancer and found yourself disappointed, don't let the name of this cartridge fool you. Shadow Dancer - The Secret Of Shinobi is a great game and is a worthy follow up to the Revenge Of Shinobi. For those who loved the original coin-op Shinobi, Shadow Dancer - The Secret Of Shinobi is a must have since it is the TRUE sequel to Shinobi and features many of the secrets that can be found in Shinobi (including the "shinobi" bonus). For those who are big fans of the Revenge Of Shinobi, Shadow Dancer is definitely worth a look. Graphics 8 Sound 7 (music's nowhere as good as the Revenge of Shinobi's) Gameplay 8 "Funness" 8 (Yay! "Real" Shinobi for the Genesis) Overall 8 Shadow Dancer - The Secret of Shinobi, for the Sega Genesis by Sega Enterprises (4MBit) ------------------------------ From: Zandos Rhoe Subject: Genesis: Thunderforce III Before I go any further with this review I'd like to say that I'm the type of who just loves shooting games. If they keep coming out with ones like Thunderforce III I may never tire of them. (Can't wait for Aero Blaster, Thunderforce IV, MUSHA, and Gaiares) Anyway, as you may suspect, I loved this game. It is what any great shooter should be: awesome background graphics, lots to shoot at, huge mini/big bosses, a variety of power ups and options, and an above average to very hard level of difficulty. In Thunderforce III you must battle your way through eight levels of really intense shooting action to destroy the last boss as in any shooter. Your ship is armed with twin and back lasers. Picking up power ups you can get Sever (a very powerful laser), Lancer (powerful back laser), Wave (an ultrasonic weapon), Fire (ground missiles), and Hunter (homing missiles). The options consist of a shield and a claw (a revolving satellite). The game starts out on a map where you can choose from any of the first five planets (stages) to start on. You won't be able to play the last three stages or see what they are until you clear the first five. It's a pretty rough task getting past the first five stages even for experts. Once you get the basic patterns down though, it's not too hard. Thunderforce III is slightly above average in difficulty. Thunderforce III is graphically superior to any shooter that I have seen or played so far on the Genesis or the Turbo. It ranks right up there with Mickey Mouse as one of the best looking games for any system. There are a lot of neat special effects devoted to the backgrounds. The flame waves in level two is a good example and the backgrounds scroll up to four levels in the game. The bosses are huge, colorful, and highly detailed. There is hardly a trace of flicker anywhere in this game. In sum, the graphics in this game will really blow you away (no pun intended). The musical score is one of the best I've heard thus far for the Genesis. Not as good as TGX-16 CD-ROM titles but just as good as most TGX-16 games and better than just about any Genesis cart that I've played. The sound effects are also quite good, although given the Genesis' capabilities I think the could've been better. As I've said this is one of the better shooters around. It's very fun to play since there are a variety of enemies and some very interesting bosses to fight. I had very little trouble using the joypad to solve the game but others may want the power stick to play this one (especially level 7's boss). This game is highly recommended for all Genesis fans. It is definitely one that all Genesis owners should have in their library (if only to show off some of the Genesis' capabilities). Graphics: 10 Sound/Music: 9 Playability: 10 Overall: 10 Thunderforce III, for the Sega Genesis, $49.99 ------------------------------ From: IO92530@Maine.Bitnet (Scott Zoldi) Subject: NES: Megaman III Mega-awesome. Best game I ever played. Megaman, an atomic robot was created by doctor light to defend the world from doctor wiley and his evil robots. This is the third of a sequel and by far the best. This is capcom's best effort at an adventure game. I would say the best action game for the Nintendo ever! Megaman is armed only with an arm canon and must fight all the robot masters. These robot master's are very hard to defeat and require trying many different techniques. After defeating a robot master you aquire his weapon and can use it against the other robot masters. This is assuming you even get to the robot masters. Capcom has made the journey to these robots as perilous as the robot masters themselves. Also you have your robot dog "rush" with you. He aquires powers as you defeat the robot masters. rush can turn into a jet, spring board, or a submarine. Rush appears only when you summon him, so he never gets in the way. Creativity: Megaman III is the freshest game around. The clear and life-like graphics will astound anyone. The robots range from robotic parachutes, giant cats, snakes, spring robots, and many others. The play is amazing. There is little to no slowdown. Each of the robot masters have special abilities and powers. In the entire game there are 20 robot masters, 8 old ones from the Megaman II game. This game cannot be explained in words. Problems: This game requires figuring out which weapons work best on each of the robot masters, however, they really don't tell you who to start with. I would suggest Snakeman. Length: The game is a long game compaired to other action games. it features password ability. I rented the game determined to finish it after 20 hours of nearly continous play I knew I couldn't finish it. It is sure to give you months of playing pleasure. Cost: Currently the only game store carrying the game is Toys R' Us, but other stores are sure to follow. $64.99, this was right before christmas. Bargain hunters should be able to find it for around $50 in a few months. Graphics 10 Playablity 10 Story 9 Sound 9 Overall 10+ (a must play game) MEGAMAN III, for the Nintendo Entertainment System, by CapCom ------------------------------ From: Dave Taylor Subject: NES: Snake Rattle 'n Roll While the Nintendo Entertainment System has quite a staggering range of titles available, most of them demonstrate more of the problems of the system than the features and capabilities. With the growing enthusiasm for 16-bit systems it's more and more surprising that the market isn't focusing more on really high quality titles to keep the 8-bit NES alive. Fortunately, there are a few, and one of the best I've ever seen goes by the unlikely name of "Snake Rattle 'n Roll". With graphics better than many 16-bit games, and excellent music and audio, Snake Rattle 'n Roll is an intruiging three dimensional exploration game that takes place in a weird, futuristic, geometric universe. The player controls "Rattle" or "Roll", initially a smiling head (uh, very short snake), and the object is to go through each level eating "nibbly pibbleys" (which lengthen your tail) until your tail is long enough for you to proceed to the next level. There are three types of nibbly pibbleys on each level, and the nibbly pibbleys get harder and harder to capture as the levels increase. There is also a time limit on each level, and figuring out how to get to certain spots can take quite a while. The entire game area is viewed from above, in a three-dimensional view, with smooth scrolling and flashy colors. Each nibbly pibbley eaten gains points as well as tail length, and there are also various obstacles (and bonus levels) that can garner even more points for the player. The game is liberally sprinkled with witty and amusing characters, including the evil underwater monsters - sharks - who have an unerring ability to get to you within a second or two of your snake falling into the water (fortunately if you move VERY fast, you can get back out of the water in time!) The music for that character is an ominous thumping reminiscent of the Jaws theme. The animation is also top notch, and the realization of the snake motion (especially the undulation of the tail after a jump) is nothing short of astounding. Overall, this game is a fun and unusual addition to the NES library, and sports some of the best programming, graphics, and music available yet. Very highly recommended. Graphics: 10 Music: 10 Playability: 9 Fun Factor: 10 Overall: 10 "Snake Rattle and Roll", for the Nintendo Entertainment System by RARE Coin-It Ltd of Japan (available in the US from Nintendo) ------------------------------ From: clg@guardian.cs.psu.edu (Craig Gruneberg) Subject: GameBoy: Gargoyle's Quest At long last, here it is. A few months back we were asked to write a review of Gargoyle's Quest for GameBoy. Well, I had all intentions of sitting down with GQ and within a day or two I expected to be well on my way to finishing it. My son Justin, who is 6, was also expected to do even better than me at it since he has shown an uncanny ability to figure out the hardest games in much less time than I. Well, three months later or thereabouts and we haven't progressed much beyond the second big boss. Part of our inability to progress can be attributed to not playing GQ as much as we had originally intended too. The major reason, though, is that GQ is one tough game! Let me begin by giving my impressions of GQ based on my modest time at the controls. The graphics are awesome, probably pushing the capability of GameBoy. At times they resemble the majority of holograms I have seen due to the gray/yellow coloring exhibited by the GameBoy display. The movement of Firebrand ( the adventurer you control ) is somewhat unusual and requires some practice in order to get him to do what you want. He can jump, hover, attach himself to walls, and scale the walls. A deft touch with the directional cross and the A button helps with his maneuvers. The game is somewhat akin to The Legend of Zelda. You must take Firebrand on an adventure overland and into buildings where he talks with other characters and gathers items and advice. As he walks around the "Ghoul Realm" he might fall into a fight scene wherein he must maneuver and make use of the weapons he has gathered. It is in the buildings where he obtains passwords by talking with other characters. The password menu puts alot of NES games to shame with its ease of use. There are no "like looking" numbers/letters which have always elicited the refrain " Is that a 5 or an S, an I or a 1?" The GameBoy dot matrix display makes for a very clear representation of the password characters. Consequently, entering the password is a snap. My advice on game play is don't give up initially when it appears that you cannot make any progress. It took me 20 or 30 frustrated tries to get to the point where I got the first password. I could then skip this part of the game in subsequent sessions. We have managed to get 4 or 5 passwords so far but it appears that even though they are different, they return you to the same place in the game with the same complement of items. The following comment I love to make! THE BOOK THAT COMES WITH GQ STINKS! If only the game marketeers would tap the minds of the software developers alittle better and put some meat into these books. GQ's book is surprising short for a game of such depth. My son Justin who is 6 also played a part in writing this review. As I said before he picks up NES and GameBoy games very quickly and since he just started reading with efficiency he hasn't been able to read the books which come with the games ( nor has he shown much interest in doing so, he just unpacks the game, slips it into the deck, and away he goes! ). He tells me he has only progressed to a point somewhat beyond the second boss. Some of his comments on GQ are: "It's a good, hard game; we didn't get anywhere new" he said with some disgust! "The book is real bad!" Like father, like son. "I like the graphics." "We got the Fingernail, Gremlin Stick, Jump2, Life2 but never figured out how to use MAGIC." Justin beat the second boss, I barely limped beyond the first! GQ is a welcome change from the majority of puzzle titles available for GameBoy. If adventure games are your thing you can't go wrong with GQ. Graphics: 10 Game Play: 8 ( character movement somewhat trying at times ) Sound: 10 Difficulty: 9 Instruction Book -2 ( how low can this go?? ) Gargoyle's Quest for the Nintendo GameBoy, CapCom ------------------------------ From: keithh@bwdls40.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan) Subject: PC: Pool of Radiance Pool of Radiance is a good game trapped within a terrible user interface. PoR is essentially a software version AD&D in the same vein as Bard's Tale and Dungeon Master. It is not as good as either. The game comes on two disks and can be installed on your hard-disk. It uses a code-wheel copy protection scheme. Also included are two booklets totalling 72 pages and a platform specific Refernce Card. One booklet concerns itself with the mechanisms for play and the second, the "Adventurer's Journal", is full of supplemental information essential to your game progress. The game refers to entries in the journal, tavern tales, and proclamations. You can save the game at any time under one of 10 labels (A-J). To restore another game you must quit out and start again. The game also multi-tasks (but see below) and the game screen supports the Amiga-M and Amiga-N control keys. In PoR, you create and control a party of adventurers that have travelled to a city called Phlan. Phlan is an ancient city that fell many many years ago. New Phlan is an attempt to reclaim the lost city from the monsters which now inhabit it. There is a 'safe' reclaimed portion and a number of sectors of unreclaimed city. These unreclaimed portions include the slums, the Library of Mendor, Podal Plaza etc... Each sector is 16x16 and typically has some conclusive encounter. For comparison, Bard's Tale used 22x22 mazes which are nearly twice as big (484 vs 256). 16x16 is a little small and somewhat lacking in 'atmosphere'. There is also some wilderness adventure but I have not yet reached that state (and may never) so cannot comment on it. Speaking of detail: the walls have very little detail and perspective is not handled as well as in Bard's Tale. In BT, it is possible to map a great distance ahead, 5 or 6 sectors, if your light is good enough. In PoR, it is difficult to interpret the walls more than one sector distant. You must resort to the over-head, 2D 'Area' perspective that the game offers you. This also allows you to cheat somewhat although it doesn't show you where doors or arches are. Pool of Radiance has a fair amount of game detail, there is an overall mystery involved, and the play balance is pretty good. The game itself would be very good indeed if they fixed up a few problems: o There is no type-ahead and the game uses polled i/o. This is unforgivable! While I am grateful that the game can be installed on my hard-drive and that it multitasks, the polling chews up so much cpu as to seriously debilitate the Amiga's multi-tasking capability. The other side effect is that there is no type-ahead. This slows down game play interminably. In any game involving repetitive maze navigation, the player becomes accustomed to the key strokes necessary to move about. Consider movement in Bard's Tale where it is possible to move the characters about very rapidly indeed. In PoR, this is impossible. o Every command and output message involves a very slow re-display of the text. Every single key press results in a complete re-display of all the text on the screen. This is bizzare and also contributes to the gameplay slow-down. It's doubly strange in light of the fact that the graphic display is updated very quickly indeed. There is a mechanism for controlling the text speed but it is a kludge: Instead of controlling the duration of each message put in the display areas (there are two), it controls the wait between each word typed. This yields an effect not unlike a primary reader. o On the other hand, output messages all appear in the same space and always overwrite each other. Frequently one misses the output entirely. In fact, due to the continual refreshing it is possible to be oblivious to the text and not even realize that you have missed it. If these last two comments sound like text display is paradoxically too fast and too slow simultaneously, that's about how I feel about it. It took a mighty poor design team to come up with this display mechanism. How they managed to avoid learning about scroll-bars is beyond me. o The command menus are illogically ordered. Some items are accessible almost everywhere and others inaccessible except in special situations. For example, it is possible to 'pool' the group's funds when purchasing goods but not when purchasing training. Instead, you have to 'trade' money from character to character. This is only one of many examples. The designers made absolutely no attempt to streamline the menus according to frequency of player use. (Did they have play testers? Perhaps not - the credits don't mention any.) o In keeping with the poor quality of information display, it is impossible to examine a player's attributes during combat until it is his turn to act. Further, once a character is injured, there is no way, AT ALL, to determine what his full hit-points are. Thus when a cleric wants to distribute healing, it is impossible to distinguish between a character merely scratched (down 1 hp), and a more seriously injured character (say, down 10hp). Strategy is thus difficult to apply during a combat. Which fighter do you go help when you can't tell whether either of them are bleeding? o Combat in general has its own host of problems but most of these are of the same flavour as mentioned above. Suffice to say it is slow, slow, slow!! In keeping with AD&D, (where if you aren't following the Gygax Gospel EXACTLY, well then, you are a stupid heathen who doesn't merit the name 'gamer'), realism is pursued by pasting kludges upon kludges, typically at the expense of playability. Disengaging from combat is a good example: Even if the enemy you are adjacent to has his hands full with three adversaries, if you back away he gets a free strike at your rear with bonuses. Another problem I have with the combat is that there are too many 40-kobold attacks and not enough fewer-but-more-challenging-enemy attacks. This of course aggravates a combat system suffering from continual text re-refreshes. o The graphics are very poor. I understand the requirement for portability but that doesn't require that they distribute the lowest quality graphics across all platforms. Why don't the graphic artists draw in a high resolution and then use one of the innumerable format conversion programs (the best of which are free such as fbm and pbm) to 'scale down' the graphics to each appropriate platform? In fact, the dithering etc that is done by these programs is incredible and would result in better looking graphics even for the EGA outputs. o The manual has problems, largely stemming from the countless nested single-line menus. It is difficult to find particular topics and there is neither index nor cross-reference. o The game doesn't take advantage of all the memory available to do caching. Each sector is loaded and unloaded every time you enter and exit even if you have the memory to contain it. The same is true of character and monster graphics. Pretty mickey mouse. o Apparently the sequel, Curse of the Azure Bonds, has made no improvements and this fact, more than any other has convinced me that the designers have absolutely no interest in professionalism. Pool of Radiance - A Forgotten Realms Fantasy RPG Epic, Vol I, by Strategic Simulations, Inc (code wheel) ------------------------------ From: see@cs.utexas.edu (Hiow-Tong Jason See @ Akokisa) Subject: PC: Bards Tale III Bards Tale III is a reasonably good game, but not as good as other similar games like Dragon Wars, or the Dark Heart of Uukrul. Like its other predecessors, it is a long game, which would provide weeks of fun and excitement. Towards the end, the combat sequences are rather tighly balanced, and it is easy to get killed. It is also difficult to advance in levels, and at times the game is rather slow moving. The graphics is ok, not great. Although it is stated on the box that this game runs on VGA, it only has EGA graphics capabilities. The graphics are very simple, and are not as great as they look on the box. Furthermore, a large numbers of players/monsters may share the same pictorial profile For example, players characters like the monk, warrior, paladin, rogue and hunter, as well as a number of different monsters all share the same pictorial profile of a knight. The Automapping facilities provided by this game is also quite inadequate. In the dungeons, automapping facilities keep track of all the places that you've been to, temporarily. Hence, everytime you exit from the dungeon, or move to a new level in the dungeon, all the mapping that you've done will be lost. At times it may even be necessary to draw the maps using pencil and paper. In conclusion, I would only recommend Bard's Tale III to experienced and patient role playing gamers, and not for novices. Graphics 4 Sound 4 Playability 7 Documentation 5 Overall 6 Bards Tale III, for the IBM PC and compatibles by Electronic Arts (EGA graphics) ------------------------------ From: sumax.seattleu.edu!halcyon!elf (Elf Sternberg) Subject: Amiga: Full Metal Planet I bought Full Metal Planet because I've always been fond of tactical wargames like Ogre or Mechforce, in both their computer and original board incarnations, and on the box FMP looked like it was my kind of game. The illustrations showed carefully drawn tanks and ships fighting over a detailed map with mountains, swamps and reefs. The idea behind FMP (as the manual calls it) is that you run a mining ship which lands on a planet that's about to self-destruct (although why this is about to happen is never explained), and one to three competitors soon follow. With a variety of tanks, 'crabs,' barges, and your 'weather hen,' you set about retrieving as much valuable ore as possible while your competitors stop at nothing to either capture or destroy your hardware, and that includes your ship! Of course, you try to do the same to them. The artwork is magnificent. The map is beautiful in detail, as are the various pieces of armament. The sound effects are adequate, although for the most part they consist of what I call "ker-plunk and ker-chunk" sounds, that is, sounds that register an event but really aren't equal to the action. The interface is intricately constructed, with an enormous variety of options. The concept makes for good wargaming, and there are display options that make for much easier wargaming; one can, for instance, display all of the hexes in range of your guns, or remove an opponent from the tactical map to assess a situation. You can choose to display the hexagonal grid over the main map or not. But there the compliments end. The documentation is often lacking in detail. For example, to lift off one freighter the default mouseclick means 'YES,' but if you've captured an enemy ship the default mouseclick means 'NO.' The illustration of 'fire zones' does not include a penalty situation that I think is rather silly anyway. Worst of all, the map is always the same; fighting for the same turf over and over can soon get boring. Because a barge can be both in and out of an enemy's firezone (being two hexes long) you cannot do an emergency retreat. When you order a piece to move from "here" to "there," rather than the most-direct-route method used in other wargames, FMP tells you to trace a path hex by hex from start to destination, and if you happen to mistrace you have to back up hex by hex and start over! And if you happen to trace over the same hex twice, both numbers show up in the hex, making it difficult to read! FMP has a non-standard DOS so I can't save FMP on my hard-drive, yet it copied easily with diskcopy and has an off-disk protection. The saved-game routine formats the save-game disk using that self-same incompatible format, so I can't save my games or my symbols to my hard-drive. The file requestor is a nightmare, and it isn't clearly documented, either. And I am really tired of programs that don't recognize a second floppy drive. FMP has only summoned the guru once, and in the dozens of games played by myself and two others, only one "bug" has occurred, and then only once; a tank mysteriously vanished when the tide came in. According to the documentation, tanks can only get stuck; they do not sink. But aside from bugs, the game is a perfect example of style over substance. The real complaint about Full Metal Planet is that, as a wargame, it's child's play. After three or four games the strategies of the computer opponents become apparent, and ridiculously easy to beat. The computer uses it's actions with horrid inefficiency, and will abandon perfectly good hardware upon takeoff. The computer opponent has set deployment zone, and always deploy in the same pattern. For instance, an opponent landing on the center island always deploys his forces in exactly the same way, always makes exactly the same opening move, and (at this point) always loses two very valuable pieces to me on the third turn as a result. Rather than leave with as much ore as I can, I now set up to take the enemy's starships, and after less then fifteen games can now take all four starships regularly, and with ease. The challenge is no longer will I defeat the computer, but will I beat my previous score. As a hint, do not take the fourth starship early; pull all of your other units back into the other three starships as quickly as possible before capturing the fourth; if you capture the fourth, all four take off immediately, and you do not gain the material value of machinery and ore left behind. The fact that the game immediately hands me 'victory' without my consent is frustrating. I have actually become a poor winner playing Full Metal Planet. Perhaps this seems like a long list of gripes; no game is perfect. But I wanted to like Full Metal Planet, I really did. At first, arguing with my computer about what was and was not in the game manual, and in the end, knowing the terrain and easily capturing all four enemies five games in a row, became very tiring very quickly. Full Metal Planet is for die-hard wargamers only, and then only for a little while. Very soon, even the truly die-hard will return to Empire or Mechforce. Or maybe even take the Command Post one more time. Full Metal Planet for the Amiga, by Data East ($49.99) ------------------------------------- To join this group or have your reviews appear in the next issue, please send electronic mail to Dave Taylor at the following address; digital-games@digital-games.Intuitive.Com We welcome reviews of games for any computer system, including the IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, Atari, Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari Lynx, Sega Genesis, Nintendo GameBoy, NEC TurboGrafix, Amiga and so on. Back issues are archived as digests, as well as broken into individual reviews. To receive them via electronic mail, send a note to the address "info@limbo.intuitive.com" (or decwrl!limbo!info) with the body containing the lines "help" and "listall Digital.Games". The views expressed in Digital Games Review Digest are those of the individual authors only, and do not represent the views or opinions of Intuitive Systems or any of our affiliates worldwide. The copyright of each article is that of the original author, and the copyright of the digest itself, as well as the name "Digital Games Review Digest" are noted here. ********************* End of Digital Games Review Digest *********************