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.

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Waking up the neighbours

Some games are so ubiquitous they are even familiar to non-gamers; Atari's Paperboy is a prime example. That's why I put off writing about it for so long, assuming there would be nothing remotely fresh to say about the classic, isometric newspaper-delivering sim that - against the odds - took suburbia by storm. I did eventually hit upon something... and it wasn't a stout-looking bulldog or obliviously reversing car. Well, it's different, I ticked that box.

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The heat is on

There's no denying that Beverly Hills Cop (1984) immensely influenced the propulsion of Eddie Murphy's acting career to international stardom status, owing to its endearing fusion of comedy, high-impact action and police detective work. Most decisively, audiences took a shine to Axel Foley's droll, wise-cracking persona, yet also his competence as an ass-kicking cop who never hesitates in veering off-piste to nail the crooks. Beverly Hills Cop was a massive blockbuster hit, raking in $316.40m at the box office. So well-received, confidence in the concept expedited two sequels and much later in 2013, a TV series.

Tynesoft Computer Software certainly recognised the IP's potential as a means to exponentially shift video game copies. In 1990 they were responsible for developing and publishing a multi-system, multi-genre homage to the first entry in the movie trilogy. It's alternately a platform game, a 1st person racer, an FPS and a top-down shooter. What it's not, is very good. Tynesoft's playable interpretation of the revered franchise totally wasted the license's vast potential, possibly sullying its reputation amongst gamers? If so, this might explain why no other games developer attempted to correct matters until the advent of the 2007 PlayStation 2 title.

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Darling, I give you very best truck

In Timothy Dalton's final outing as MI6's most notorious superspy, James Bond is pitted against ruthless central American drug lord, Franz Sanchez, sparked by a vicious attack on CIA friend, Felix Leiter, and his fiance. Licence to Kill (1989) is memorable predominantly for representing Bond's defection to the dark side post-resignation, supervillain Robert Davi's pet iguana and the volatile HGV chase finale that leaves everyone dripping with leaked fuel, singed and hot under the collar.

True to form, Domark secured the game conversion rights, creating an officially licenced adaptation for all the popular 8 and 16-bit platforms of the era. Quixel took on the development duties, cobbling together a top-down arcade-action title comprised of a variety of (mostly vehicular-based) mini-games mirroring the movie's principal explosively dramatic set pieces. I attempt to connect the dots between the two mediums, assessing how accurately the small screen iterations reflect their source material.

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