Label: Dinamic
Author: In-house
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas
Who remembers Game Over? Everyone. Why? Booby artwork. Thoroughly forgettable game. Not quite the same story with the sequel. Nearly, but not quite.
Your old drinking partner, Arkos the scientist, has been banged up in the intergalactic nick by the forces still loyal to Gremla (the shocking tart adorning the front of the box) It's up to you to free him.
There are a couple of stages in GOII. You kick off in a fighter spaceship on an apparently impossible flight towards the centre of the aliens' prison complex. You can't move too quickly, so you'll have to get an angle on the aliens' attack waves if you're to stand even the slightest chance of getting through.
Graphically things are pretty low-level. There has been absolutely no attempt to minimalise attribute clash and - with the exception of the explosions, which are great - it's a teensy bit basic. Still, there's no shortage of action. You can blast away quite successfully with your laser and enter into some reasonable skirmishy-dogfights with the bad guys.
The screen scrolls from right to left with the standard fare; asteroids, stars etc. After a period of time you'll find yourself in Zone 1 where there's a floor to crash into and life becomes unspeakably difficult. Huge red balls shoot up from craters in the rocky surface and do their utmost to collide with you. Owing to the plain obstinacy of your ship on the movement front, you need to predict when one of these guys is about to appear, rather than merely reacting when one pops up.
As well as the red balls, blue bubbles fall from the top of the screen and hamper your progress. There are a number of aliens, too, which fly up from behind you and smash you to bits.
If you're picking up the feeling that GOII is bloody impossible, well, you wouldn't be far wrong. It's all a bit erratic. The action is all there, but your spaceship is too big and you keep crashing into things. The aliens rarely pose much of a threat, except in unfair caught-up-the-backside sort of ways. It took me ages and ages to get through the open-air bit and 2 seconds to clear the following underground chamber section.
Zone 3 of the first part is the weakest point of the whole game. You climb down from your spaceship and climb aboard an absurd space-ostrich. Here you've got to walk along a riverbank combating galactic toads and suchlike with an extremely hopeless boomerang item.
At the end of this stage, you are endowed with the mystical secret code number of Dinamic which lets you load and play Part 2, which is a whole lot more interesting. Map and explore, pick up items and gradually work your way towards the scientist (the one you're rescuing - remember?)
Game Over II is by no stretch of the imagination a great game, but there is lots and lots of it, and there's quite a bit of variety too. Coupled with the fact that you get the first game Game Over, imbecile on the B side of the disc, it's worth a look, but don't expect lasting appeal.
Label: Alternative
Memory: 48K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Big Al Dykes
Well, well I've always dreamed of owning a zippy spacecraft with awesome weaponry and a good line in forward, backward, upwards and downwards movement, so slap me with a soggy Marmite sandwich if this game doesn't fit the bill.
A classic arcade format space shoot 'em up, Game Over II involves a rescue mission in deep space with ten levels of frantic action taking place above, on and below ground. The variety of gameplay is impressive for a budget game. The main Character, known as Commander Locke gets to ride a strange beast (no, not the Garthmobile) and fly around using a spacecraft and jetpack without fear for his own safety or for parking tickets.
To cut a long story short, (well relatively so) you must reach a prison planet against all the odds, flying over it's volcanic danger zones before landing and then capture and use an 'Adrec' (a strange cross between a kangaroo, a horse and a sad Australian TV presenter) to get you through the swamp. (Can you tell what it is yet kids?). Other levels include an underground forest, a subterranean lake and finally, the fiendishly well-guarded prison itself which all make Game Over II quite a difficult blast that demands lightning-quick reactions, lots of practice and a strip of Elastoplast for those finger blisters.
Unfortunately I couldn't get a Sinclair joystick to work with it but keyboard control is good. There are 24 different enemies to contend with, some are easy enough, almost suicidal, but others are dangerous beyond belief, especially the ones that creep (or fly at lightning speed) at you from behind.
With large clear graphics and plenty of colour, Game Over II contains more than enough speed and good fightin' action to keep most combat-crazy space veterans blister-fingered and well plastered right to the end.
GARTH:
The old ones are definitely the best and I still carry the blister marks left from Game Over. The sequel uses a similar recipe of blistering pace and lip-biting action.
All information in this page is provided by ZXSR instead of ZXDB