Game: Street Olympics
Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: Patrick Strassen
Release Date: 1984
The box art for Street Olympics features a man in a hat, jumping neighbourhood walls with a brick in his hand. This isn't quite what you get to do in the actual game, however. There's four events; Sprinting, Jogging, Jumping and Throwing. Sprinting and Jogging are basically the same thing, just with different distances; you're required to either mash the ? and shift keys on the Commodore or jog a joystick left and right as fast as possible. Eitherway it's pretty easy to beat the preset high scores, and this type of gameplay is still around in athletics games today.
Jumping is just another name for hurdles as to clear what look like little brick obstructions in the road. This is done by pressing the fire button (which makes joystick gameplay harder), whilst wiggling to run. Throwing seems to be rather broken on this game. The player runs up to the line to throw whatever sporting equipment they've got, and a box comes up to set an angle of throw, but nothing ever happens, no matter what you press and the item is dropped, resulting in no score.
Graphically, what there is on the game isn't bad for the Commodore, you can pretty much tell what everything is, and most of the gameplay works pretty well. There's some fun to be had with the game but it's not something you need to replay as there's very limited options as to what you can do.
Rating: 18/100
Grade: F
Game: Suicide Run
Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: John Shay
Release Date: 1985
Suicide Run is a side scrolling space shooter where the player controls a ship with the ability to move up and down, as well as fire missiles and drop bombs. As you fly through the level there are various obstacles which you need to avoid, and as you do so your score goes up. The ship that you're piloting is only able to fire once every 5 seconds or so, so the player must judge where will be best to aim for the maximum chance of getting past the asteroids, rockets and other obstacles in their path.
Graphically the game is pretty unimpressive, the game is windowed with a brown border inside which the sprites are small and difficult to identify properly. The colours chosen make it hard to see the player's ship and some of the obstacles too. and the terrain looks generally jagged. The sound effects are reminiscent of the Atari 2600 with a lot more noise than actual desired sounds. Overall it plays like an arcade scrolling shooter with poor graphics and basic gameplay.
Rating: 20/100
Grade: F
Game: Gunlaw
Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: Mastertronic
Release Date: 1987
Gunlaw challenges the player to get as far up the screen as possible whilst avoiding fire from enemy soldiers and navigating the tough terrain of the desert type area they've been dropped in. You can move in four directions, as well as shoot in them. One shot to an enemy soldier will kill them, and similarly one shot from an enemy solider will kill you. The problem with the gameplay is that due to the way the player is displayed on the screen, there's a blank border around them. If you walk into a rock ahead of you, you won't be able to progress but you also won't be able to see what's blocking you from doing so.
This means that the enemy soliders are at an advantage, which is a problem when there's already far too many of them about on the screen. Another problem with the gameplay is that when you tap a direction, you instantly walk in it, making close combat harder. Any time an enemy soldier is near you, shooting them requires moving away and then back toward them whilst pressing the fire button, otherwise you walk into them and die.
Graphically there's some decent parts to the game, the trees and pools of water are probably the best landscape features. The blank areas around the player's sprite are somewhat of an issue as things disappear around the player a lot of the time. Soundwise there's only effects for shooting and dying, both of which are pretty similar and are very basic. Overall it's best played more like a Metal Gear Solid game than a shooter, as stealth can prove more useful than outright power.
Rating: 21/100
Grade: F
Game: Legionnaire
Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: Anco
Release Date: 1986
Released a year earlier than Gunlaw, this game has a very similar concept. You play as a solider who must make it to the top of the screen and then eliminate any enemy soldiers there to clear the level. You can move and shoot, as in Gunlaw but the controls feel tighter and generally it's a more enjoyable game. There's less enemies on the screen and the problem with disappearing objects has been lessened, although you'll still get stuck on things every now and then.
Graphically the environment is more detailed than Gunlaw, but the sprites are less detailed (although still recognisable as soldiers). Soundwise it features a better range of sound effects also. Once the player is at the top of the screen, and has shot all of the enemies, you're told that the area is clean, and you may move on. The difficulty is easier than that of Gunlaw which means overall it's a better game.
Rating: 26/100
Grade: F
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