Play a game or tournament of darts with seven wacky characters, including Nigel the Ninja, Jeff the Archer, Baza the War Machine, and Jocky Pilsner. Each character has their own method of playing, and some even use arrows, shurikens and bullets instead of darts – now that is wacky! You can play either the normal 501 game or a round-the-clock game where you must hit each of the numbers in sequence, from 20 to 1. This game first appeared on the CPC on the Quattro Fantastic compilation, and the novelty is fun at first. However, the collision detection is poor (e.g. scoring a treble 1 when a dart clearly landed in the treble 20 zone), and aiming the dart accurately is extremely difficult. The almost total lack of sound effects is another thing to note.

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Race the Mean Machine, piloted by Dick Dastardly and his dog Mutley from the cartoon series, across five long and hazard-filled tracks. You've got to finish either first or second to be allowed to go to the next level, and to do this, you must use the Mean Machine's weaponry to bump the other racers off the track, in true Dick Dastardly style. Worms and beetles also have to be killed using the same weapons. If you finish in the top two, there's a sub-game where you, as Mutley, must find four bombs for the next level within the time limit. The graphics are clear and well drawn, but there are very few sound effects. The game is a lot of fun initially, and the first level is fairly easy, but by the second level, it becomes much harder and consequently more frustrating.

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A system of ten planets has been taken over by the evil Vadd. You must eradicate Vadd in order to liberate the planets, but you'll need to obtain 8000 Megs to buy a Mega Disrupter before you can visit Vadd's planet in the centre of the system. To do this, you must trade Disrupter units with the planets. Each planet has five units, which are represented as symbols, and if you can provide a planet with several units that are the same, you will earn more Megs – think of it as a variation of poker. You can also fly through black holes and collect variable Disrupters which can be traded for about 2000 Megs. There is also a lot of shooting to be done while travelling between the planets. Overall, this mixture of shoot-'em-up and trading is rather repetitive and lacklustre.

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5

I remember buying this one with my pocket money one weekend. Loading the game gives the promise of a good-looking shoot-'em-up. An impressive MODE 1 screen appears as a title screen and options are displayed... then your heart sinks as the small options menu is slowly replaced by the game background. In this so-called game, you play within a small window moving your ship around and hoping to hit the approaching ships which wrap around the edges of the screen as they move downwards. The colour scheme, while fetching for the rest of the screen, does no favours to the small area used for the game. Each time you die – and that's always – you return to the menu, losing a life. Avoid!

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0

Pilot the advanced Warhawk spaceship through an asteroid belt, shooting the enemy bases and the swarms of aliens that advance towards you. You'll also need to avoid asteroids. Contact with them, or with aliens and their bullets, loses energy. Unfortunately, while it's not a problem to avoid alien spacecraft or asteroids, the bullets follow you all around the screen and are a lot more difficult to evade. Thankfully, your energy is restored fully at the start of every level. The music is brilliant, but the graphics are less so (although the screen area used is large), and the gameplay lacks variety; basically, it's just another space shoot-'em-up, and there aren't even any power-ups to collect.

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Warlock
(The Edge, 1987)

Explore the castle and collect as much treasure as you can, while avoiding or slaying the warriors and minions that roam the castle. The castle is large, and as well as doors, there are trapdoors and stars on the floors of many rooms, which take you to other levels of the castle. Of course, you must also keep an eye on your energy, and you can collect objects to restore it. I must say that this isn't a bad game, and the graphics are really good (although it's sometimes difficult to see what's going on), but the game slows down dramatically when there are a lot of enemies on the screen, and it's really Gauntlet in isometric 3D with less variety.

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7

Sometimes budget games can match the best full price productions. War Machine provides you with full colour graphics and remarkable playability. The game is neither too easy nor too hard, and there is a peculiar atmosphere that makes it easy for you to become identified to the hero and take part in his quest. The game would have deserved a little tune, for the sound, although convincing, is a bit bare. For real arcade lovers, to try War Machine is to adopt it.

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8

Warrior Plus
(Rainbow Productions, 1986)
Reviewed by Guillaume Chalard

You've entered a haunted castle, hoping to find some treasure. To gain access to the upper floors, you must explore every room to find keys and, by the way, fight monsters. This is an adventure game which uses a third-person view, with rather dull MODE 1 graphics. The 'Plus' in the title doesn't mean anything, for the previous version was better in my opinion. Here, every encounter starts a kind of 'game within a game' where you must shoot a monster, which is amazingly bad and completely shatters the atmosphere of the game.

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6

The Way of the Exploding Fist
(Melbourne House, 1985)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

The father of all fighting games. Simply put, this is the game that the better known and more humorous IK+ is based on. You control a single character in a karate tournament that consists of a series of one-on-one bouts against computer- or human-controlled opponents, so that you may reach the rank of 10th Dan. At your command are a range of 18 lethal moves that you dispense with your hands, head (!) and feet, with extra points being awarded for the more tricky ones performed. What we now take for granted – learning your special moves and appropriate responses to your opponent's attacks – was first defined here. It has nice sound effects when you make contact, cute graphics, a fun two-player mode, and genre-defining game play – a classic. There's also another version of the game – The Way of the Exploding Fist+ – with some extra backgrounds.

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8

The Way of the Tiger
(Gremlin, 1986)
Reviewed by Guillaume Chalard

This great arcade adaptation of a role-playing gamebook is one of the best fighting games ever for the CPC. The originality of the game is that it is split into three parts – unarmed combat, pole fighting and sword fighting. You must complete a stage in order to go to the next, but you can practice each level separately. During your progress, you'll have to fight other ninjas, rhino-headed men, dwarves or skeletons. You'll be helped by Kwon, God of the ninjas, who can give you extra health. Technically, it is brilliant; the graphics are gorgeous and very detailed. Your ninja really looks like a ninja and each move seems real. There are several backgrounds, all of which are wonderful, and the use of parallax scrolling makes the game visually impressive. It's a must for kung-fu addicts!

See also: Avenger.

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