Men of Lowe moral fibre

Exactly how close have we sailed to realising a mega-budget, live-action Leisure Suit Larry movie? I go undercover to investigate.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

Meet Wildcat's big brother

"Blazing your way to glory" in Wings of Fury initially rests on one's ability to successfully lift off from an aircraft carrier situated in the Pacific Ocean. A tricky task that flummoxes many newcomers to such an extent that they give up at the first hurdle, never to fully appreciate the joys of the horizontally scrolling, arcade-strategy flight sim that captivated my inner Maverick as a child. As the pilot of an F6F Hellcat deeply entrenched in America's World War II campaign against the ferocious Imperial Japanese army, our pivotal contribution comprises mowing down exposed foot soldiers patrolling the beaches, eliminating bunkers, machine gun nests and barracks, torpedoing battleships into oblivion and engaging in high-altitude, spine-tingling dogfights.

If you struggled to get airborne from the outset, good luck touching down again to refuel, replenish ammunition supplies and carry out repairs! You'll soon discover that fighter planes are far less efficient resting on the seabed 50ft below the surface.

This article is also available as a video presentation on YouTube.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

Extremely safe violence

Techno Cop is the kind of law enforcement officer who investigates criminal activity by blasting Death on Arrival gang members to smithereens with his .88 Magnum... and asking questions, never. To stay one step ahead of the delinquent punks he'll need to arrive at the scene of the crime before DoA even know which law they're about to violate. Fortuitous then that our high-tech crime-stopper comes equipped with a hyper-tuned V-Max Ferrari, neatly splicing the game into distinctive against-the-clock driving and scrolling shoot 'em up platformer segments.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

Turn West for serious comedy

Ocean's isometric Batman game was followed up by a 2D scrolling platformer, also from Ocean. Well, published by Ocean at least. Special FX took care of the development duties, creating a memorable riff on the dark knight's vintage comic books, rather than any of the movies or TV show. It's a plodding, puzzle-solving, adventure game at heart, glued together with minimal arcade-action elements.

What distinguishes 'Batman: The Caped Crusader' from the colony is presentation; each scene unravels in its own captivating comic book cell, superimposed over the last. That aside, Caped Crusader is comprised of two entirely distinct episodes featuring some of Batman's most notorious arch-nemeses; one revolving around Penguin's latest criminal scheme, the other concerning that of The Joker, offering double the value. With Joffa Smith in the Batcave working the control panels, you can expect a degree of lateral thinking to be required, while discovering a number of quirky, abstract allusions along the way.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

Even heroes have the right to bleed

Christopher Reeve was no doubt 'The Man of Steel' in the movies. In Tynesoft's multi-system Superman game, paper mache would be more appropriate. We begin by steering Supes into the path of hordes of Darkseid's oncoming airborne aliens in third-person flight mode. And that's all most people will get to experience of the genre-mashing homage to the greatest superhero to don underpants over his leotard. A crying shame since it's meticulously illustrated and so evocative of the comic books you can't help developing a bit of a soft spot for the downtrodden puppy.

If you take the trouble to look up the various interpretations of the game on YouTube it will be well worth your time. There are multiple 2D, scrolling beat 'em up platform levels, several obstacle-dodging/blasting interludes played in outer space from top-down perspective, and best of all, the immersive comic book pages periodically inserted between the action to progress Superman's predicament and pie-in-the-sky resolution.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

Man who catch fly with chopstick, accomplish anything

If you've ever wondered how Prince of Persia would handle as a karate grandmaster, wonder no more. Jordan Mechner's earlier foray into silky-smooth, rotoscoped animation, Karateka, should offer a few pertinent clues. You might like to fill in any gaps in your knowledge by reading my retrospective review detailing its origin story, play mechanics and plot.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

I find your lack of... ticket sales, disturbing

Dallben the Enchanter discovers that the Horned King, abominable overlord of Prydain, is conspiring to secure a mystical relic known as the Black Cauldron. Its location is a mystery so, obviously, he requires an anthropomorphic pig (Hen Wen) embued with oracular powers to guide him to the prize. Assuming this comes to pass, the Horned King will possess the almighty power to raise a subservient army of undead cauldron-born warriors who he expects will be remarkably handy in his pursuit to conquer the world.

Dallben's solution to counter the menace is to draft in his naive, teenaged, assistant swineherder, Taran, who can barely muster the fortitude to swing an adult sword, let alone command a defence league. Nevertheless, it all works out tickety-boo since this is a Disney jaunt and they weren't going to let their starring protagonist come to any harm after spending $25-44 million on the lavish project, designating it the most expensive animated production of its era. It was still a flop, and not fondly remembered today largely because the cast are so bland and forgettable. Magnificently animated and illustrated, of course, and above all else, intriguing because it's so dark considering the target market.

In 1986, a year later, Sierra On-Line snagged the gaming conversion rights, producing a primitive, yet perfectly solid puzzle-solving adventure game aimed at a younger audience. As in the movie, Taran takes the lead in an effort to rescue his pignapped pal and slay the Horned King before he can push the big red apocalypse button, opening the gates of hell without employing a bouncer to maintain a semblance of decorum amongst the party guests.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

The hate is strong with this one...

Howard the Duck - the 1986 sci-fi comedy movie based on Marvel's comic book - relays the everyday tale of an anthropomorphic quaker plucked from his Duckworld habitat and catapulted into Cleveland, Ohio, to save the human race from a dark, despicable overlord appropriately known as the Dark Overlord. Obviously, he immediately strikes up a mutual romantic liaison with Lea Thompson, performs on stage as a feathery appendage to her 'Cherry Bomb' rock band, and assists in sacking their manager, assuming the vacant role himself.

As time allows, Howard takes a break from his hilarious duck-earth acclimatisation shemozzle to train the reticle of an experimental neutron disintegrator on the Dark Overlord. But will E.T. ever get the opportunity to phone home, and if so, will anyone answer?

Embodying Howard in Activision's licensed movie tie-in game, the objective is to rescue our new pals Phil (Tim Robbins) and Beverly (Lea Thompson) who are being held hostage in an active volcano by the dastardly Dark Overlord. As a master of Quack Fu, Howard's lethally precise weapons are his bare fists and feet, which must be expertly deployed against Dracula lookalikes whilst traversing the island on which our nemesis now resides. Ironically, given that alternate superhero Howard can't swim, reaching the Dark Overlord at the far side of his stomping ground entails waddling around quicksand, jetskiing across the sea and swooping over the tropical landscape in an ultralight hand glider as seen in the movie.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

What happened today is just the beginning

Oliver Stone's acclaimed 1986 Vietnam war movie, Platoon, chronicles the piteous plight of a naive US army volunteer played by Charlie Sheen. It contemplates his evolving attitudes towards the nature of war, humanity and patriotism as, ostensibly, he deals with the immediacy of life and death skirmishes, enveloped by the cloying humidity of an oppressive jungle prison. Its lasting legacy for Private Chris Taylor is the dawning realisation that America's most salient threat is not the Viet Cong, but the battles that rage within and amongst allied ranks.

A year later when Ocean Software translated Stone's harrowing assault on the heart and soul to the medium of home computer gaming, they settled for slightly less lofty ideals. It's a 2D, scrolling or flip-screen, arcade-action shooter that eschews melancholy sentiment in favour of rapid-reflex carnage. We intermittently take charge of a squad of five soldiers, guiding them through various multi-genre scenarios replicated from the movie, culminating in a grenade-launching stand-off again Sergeant Barnes.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

I see you shiver with antici...

On a bleak, windscreen-wiper-defeating November evening, shrouded by torrential rain, Brad and Janet break down in the middle of nowhere returning home from their friends' wedding. They're welcomed inside a spooky house of horrors, not unlike the Addams Family mansion by a creepy, dishevelled butler known as Riff Raff. Reluctantly conceding help, they enter amidst an Annual Transylvanian Convention attended by an ensemble of vaguely human-ish nutters lead by Dr Frank-N-Furter, a self-proclaimed 'sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania'. Parodying Dr Frankenstein, Franky claims to have discovered the secret to overnight life creation, skipping all that longwinded pregnancy and growing up stuff. By the time Brad and Janet realise they've stumbled into a waking nightmare, it's too late to extricate themselves. They may as well go with the flow, join the surreal musical comedy stage show!

CRL Group bravely attempted to adapt the bizarre, cult cavalcade of crazy to the major 8-bit home computer systems available in 1986. It's an exploration-puzzler of sorts in which you play as Brad or Janet in an effort to recover all the various components of Franky's Medusa machine to free their loved one from a catatonic state, encased in stone. To make progress, keys must be collected and forcefields deactivated whilst navigating around the hindrance of Tim Curry's underlings, including Meat Loaf riding his trademark motorbike and Rocky himself; a muscle-bound, blond-haired, blue-eyed poster boy for Hitler's Aryan superrace.

I trace the game's development path, establish the strength of its connections to the source material and decide if it's worth your time. 

download ebook in epub format

Read More

I dreamed a dream in times gone by

Not entirely enamoured with being recruited for babysitting duties, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) invites the Goblin King (David Bowie) to whisk away her shrieking sprog brother, Toby. Overcome with guilt and remorse, thus begins a cat and mouse chase to recover the pest before he is lost forever. Embarking on an odyssey teeming with intrigue and wonderment, we're introduced to a cast of larger than life, delightful Jim Henson creations, and beyond reason, are lulled into believing they possess consciousness, unique personalities, hopes and dreams.

Lucasfilm themselves took on the mantle of converting the musical fantasy classic, Labyrinth, to various home computer formats. What they devised is a dialogue-driven enchanting embodiment of early point and click adventuring, without the mouse. I explore the merits of each medium side by side, joining the inspirational dots along the way.

download ebook in epub format

Read More

Merry-go-round broke-down

Disney's live-action, animated mystery comedy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, is so surreal you'd be forgiven for thinking you were looking at an anything-goes video game. It's funny you should think that right after I'd deliberately planted the idea in your head... because there is one. Inspired by several pivotal silver screen moments, it's a hodgepodge of action mini-games developed by 'Silent' and published in 1988 in conjunction with the movie, courtesy of Buena Vista themselves. Naturally, the quirky puzzle-platformer stars all our favourite characters, with Judge Doom taking his rightful place as Roger's dastardly bete noir. Marginally different iterations based on the same design were released for the Amiga, Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari ST and DOS PC.

download ebook in epub format

Read More