Game: Super Pipeline 2
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Taskset
Release Date: 1985
As Mario seemed to have no intention of doing much plumbing in 1985, Foreman Fred came to the rescue, braving the depths of the sewers to ensure that Sheik Aleg's barrels are filled. Unfortunately for him, the tools from the workshop seem to have gone bezerk and are attacking both the pipes and Fred himself. Contact with the tools will cause the player to lose a life and any pipes that are attacked will spring a leak, which will need to be fixed by Fred's assistant, Will who needs to be guided to the leak in order to start fixing it.
Players can travel both on top of and up and down the pipe which carries water, and it's usually best to try and get a good line of sight on the attacking tools, and enemies. While most tools are defeated when shot once, there's a scorpion which can only be defeated by a shot from behind or sacrificing Will, and a screwdriver which seems to be invincible and can only be defeated by sacrificing Will.
Graphically the game has a cartoon style of sorts, and the characters featured are colourful and easily recognisible, although when enemies and tools are positioned behind a pipe, it's near impossible to tell and tends to result in many frustrating deaths. The music of the game is pretty good for the era, and accompanies the game well. The sound effects are basic, but work decently towards giving the player audial feedback.
Overall Super Pipeline 2 seems to be a decent concept which wasn't all that well executed because of the standard of hardware in 1985. Perhaps on the Mega Drive or Super Nintendo, the game might have had some sort of enemy indication through the pipes, but as there isn't one, it makes the game far harder to play. If you're into fairly difficult puzzle/platforming games then this might be an afternoon's entertainment though.
Rating: 22/100
Grade: F
Game: Side Arms
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 1987
Once before in a review, I played the arcade version of Side Arms, and gave it a score of 45/100 due to its extreme difficulty. A year later than its arcade release, Side Arms came out on home console and the Amstrad CPC was lucky enough to get a port. While the game is vastly different from its arcade counterpart there are some redeeming features, and compared to other games on the CPC it's pretty enjoyable.
In this version of Side Arms, you play as an astronaut on their way through space, taking potshots at various enemies that come your way. There's not a lot of them around, though and often it's a little boring to just drift though space until the next one comes. A variety of weapons and powerups are included such as a spreader gun, laser shooters which rotate around the player and a laser weapon.
There are various levels to the game although it's pretty hard to get much further than the second. Depending on what powerups you currently have, the game can be pretty easy, but without them it's pretty difficult not to get hit. Graphically the game looks pretty good for the Amstrad CPC, although it was later on in the console's lifespan, so you might expect that. Musically the game is very good and the soundtrack is probably my favourite part, although its a shame that you can't hear it over the shooting sound effect most of the time. Overall this is pretty fun to play, although its not really up to the standard of space shooters on the NES.
Rating: 46/100
Grade: E
Game: Bridge-It
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Epicsoft
Release Date: 1984
There's really not a lot to say about Bridge-It. The game was one of the first games released for the Amstrad CPC and is easily one of the worst. Players are first met with an options screen asking how they'd like to define the controls, or use a joystick, the level of play and how many lives they'd like. Once these have been decided, the game's main screen flashes up and play begins almost instantaneously (which leaves players with very little time to react).
The object of the game is to guide all of your men to a building on the other side of the river, over 4 bridges which are usually in the up position. Players must lower bridges for the men to walk over before they get to them, so that they don't fall into the water. No more than 2 bridges can be lowered at once, and once one bridge is down, the other will come back up very quickly, meaning that it's almost impossible, if not absolutely impossible to guide all of the troops back to the other side.
Graphically the game seems fairly poor, almost resembling an Atari 2600 or Intellivision game from the previous generation. There's almost no detail, and the men seem to fall before they even get to the bridges. The soundtrack seems to be the game's worst feature though, with out of tune versions of songs such as Jingle Bells being your only accompaniment to the mass bridge jumping exercise.
Overall this game is almost unplayable; there's very little to do or control, the bridges are unresponsive and difficult to move in the correct way, the graphics and soundtrack are incredibly poor, and there's no hope of getting even half the men across the bridge, not that it matters, since there's no targets or clear levels to the game.
Rating: 2/100
Grade: F
Game: Skate Rock
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Bubble Bus Software
Release Date: 1987
Released in the same year as Side Arms, and far less exciting; Skate Rock is comparable to Paperboy in its gameplay. The goal is to pass through checkpoints while skating through the streets under a time limit. It also controls a little like Paperboy; the up button raises the player's speed, right and left turn, and down slows the player. Strangely though the skater travels sideways most of the time, so everything feels 90 degrees away from what it should be. Aside from this the controls are fairly responsive, even if the skating action feels painfully slow sometimes.
Jumping is programmed strangely; instead of an ollie, the skater will jump straight upwards, which can cause problems if players are not expecting that sort of motion. Checkpoints are dotted about the streets; sometimes in the road, sometimes on the pavement, and there are various obstacles that must be avoided such as pedestrians. Some of these have rather random patterns in later levels, making them hard to avoid, but the speed of the game is slow enough to be able to deal with them.
Graphically the game isn't much better than an Atari 2600 game, or something on the Commodore Plus/4; it doesn't look bad, but it's not revolutionary either. The theme tune which plays on the game's menu is enjoyable to a degree, but there's no ingame music which is a shame. Overall this is a fairly boring skating title which doesn't have a lot to do, even for the time of its release.
Rating: 26/100
Grade: F
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