Country Cottages is a pretty simplistic strategy game where you and another player must buy, improve and lease out country homes until one of you is the first to reach a predetermined level of profit and so is declared the winner. It's about as interesting as it sounds. Apart from occasional still shots of your cottage – created using 'revolutionary' Landscape Creation technology (whatever that is) – the entire game is just boring facts and figures. And even if you're into that kind of thing, the game itself is too simplistic and shallow to offer any real challenge or depth. And so, as a result, it ends up pleasing nobody. To its credit, it's an original concept, but that's about the only positive thing I can say about it.

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A consignment of gold is being delivered across the desert and you have to follow the train on your horse, and grab some of it when it reaches the next station. However, there are other cowboys who are out to get you! The music sets the scene nicely and the graphics are quite colourful, too, with some impressive animations. However, the game is a little difficult and it is really beneficial if you remember the layout of each level exactly – the timing is crucial!

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The evil Dr. K is planning to take over the world with a race of biogenetic humanoids. Enter Andy Attacker and Ben Breaker, two guys on a mission to fight their way through sixteen levels of mayhem in Dr. K's fortress. Don't you just love original plots? Anyway, this is a reasonably good game. You (and another player if you can find one) must explore each level and plant some detonators at specific points, and find the exit quickly before they explode. Fortunately, there's a map which shows you where to plant them. There's a lot of shooting involved as well, and the humanoids are rather nasty as well. The graphics are pretty good and the sound effects are OK, but it's a bit too difficult (although you get plenty of credits) and the collision detection could be better.

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Breakout has been around since 1976, and this version of it is probably deliberately based on the versions from the early days to give it that retro feel; all the bricks are blocks of one colour, and the ball is simply a square. The sound effects are few and far between as well. OK, so the presentation might be minimal, but the levels are rather badly designed, and it's very difficult to clear all the bricks from each level; often you rely on collecting a power-up which sends you to the next level. At least you can choose which level you want to start on.

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An asteroid colony has been struck by a meteor, and the Cray-5 supercomputer which controls the colony's atmosphere has been damaged. The only way to save the colony is to activate thirteen interrupters scattered around nine zones of the complex within a time limit. You will need to collect keys in order to unlock doors within the complex; however, there are three types of door, and only the correct type of key will unlock them. Other hazards include magnets, spikes and walls marked with a skull and crossbones symbol, all of which drain your energy if you touch them. The graphics and music are both rather basic, but everything is recognisable. The main problem is that you will often have to fly through some very narrow passages, and it's almost impossible to avoid contact with aliens or the aforementioned energy-sapping walls, which makes it extremely difficult to make much progress in the game.

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It's another of those races where you're driving along roads and have to reach the next checkpoint before your time runs out. Here, each level is divided into stages, and your car metamorphoses into a better and faster one when you reach the next level – nice. However, there are hardly any other cars on the track, which is mysterious; most of the time, you're driving down empty roads, and boredom sets in quickly as a result. There isn't even any scenery to make things a bit more interesting! The sound isn't up to much as well, and this is quite a lousy game.

See also: Crazy Cars II, Crazy Cars 3.

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Crazy Cars II
(Titus, 1989)

You're in a Ferrari F40 and are trying to smash a racket which is being run by some corrupt policemen. You have to race your car around four American states – Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico – and reach several destinations within the time limit. The police are on the loose, though! This game is much better than the original Crazy Cars, with excellent graphics and great Doppler effects when you're approaching police cars. There's also some really groovy digitised music to listen to on the title screen if you're playing the disc version of the game! The noise of your engine is OK, too, and it's a nice game with a lot of map-reading required. As for the cartridge version, the only differences in the graphics are that the sky looks nicer, and the instrument panel is brown instead of grey – although the map is built into the game and can be accessed at any time.

See also: Crazy Cars, Crazy Cars 3.

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In this episode of the Crazy Cars series, you race in your Lamborghini aiming to reach the top of the first division. The routes you race along are Memphis, Denver, Miami, Boston, Houston and Mojave. There is an entry fee for each race, and you can also gamble on who will win. Cash is needed to repair your car and buy upgrades. Graphically, this game is very attractive with well drawn screens, good use of colour, and character portraits. The only problem lies in the frame rate which results in a visually jumpy race. It's still playable, though, and deserves a few goes.

See also: Crazy Cars, Crazy Cars II.

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I loved playing crazy golf when I was young, but this version of the game is staggeringly bad. It's written in BASIC for a start, and each of the 18 holes is drawn entirely using lines. It looks extremely ugly and amateurish, and even more so thanks to the horrible colour schemes that are used. Aiming the ball is a bit difficult, and achieving par or under will take a lot of practice – and no doubt a lot of frustration as well. However, the game is so awful that most players will play one round and switch off. The fact that it was released very early in the CPC's life is no excuse for such an abysmal game.

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Do you remember those funfair stalls where you have to shoot at various targets and win prizes depending on how many points you score? This offering consists of five target shooting games – Jungle Adventure, Junior Hunter, Magic Balloons, Smoker Nightmare, and Special Police. Each game has its own slightly different set of rules, and if you run out of time or bullets, the game is over. Although you can play the game with a joystick, it is more fun if you use Loriciel's Westphaser lightgun, for which the game is designed. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, but if you only have a joystick, it's a little bit too easy and becomes uninteresting in the long term.

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