Street Hassle

Melbourne House
£7.95
Reviewer: Tony Lee

He used to be an ornery peace-lovin' sort of fella 'til the grannies came to town.

Vicious bands of umbrella-wielding OAPs roamed the city streets, bringing fear and violence to once quiet suburbs. But it wasn't just the grannies who made our hero tremble in his undies. Gangs of grey-haired old men armed with pointed sticks and bowls mats had also embarked on a reign of terror.

In fact the streets were alive with the sound of fighting, and only one man could save the day (not to mention the week, month and year). So equipped with his trusty golden battle shorts, and very little else, our hero takes up the challenge. Street Hassle is another beat 'em up, but it's one with a difference - it's a big laff and no mistake. The assorted chunky characters who come to pulverise you into dust - worra weird lot they are! My fave is the chap who uses his extra-large turn as a (very effective) weapon. And there are banana-chucking gorillas, mad dogs and a phantom bomber with mystery effect bombs.

The game's only major letdown is the limited number of aggressive moves our hero can make, although to be fair, there are hidden moves on later levels. But apart from that I enjoyed it a lot. Okay, so for a full-price effort it may be a little on the thin side, but it's novel and fun to play, and you can't say that about many games today.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Cheaper than a speeding bullet. Leaps small molehills in a single bound. Is it a bird? Is it a small piece of putty? No, it's budget hero Marcus Berkmann with the latest in low-price Spec-fun.

Mastertronic
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Straightforward punch-'n'-crunch game which looks rather happier in the cheapie rack than it did when released at full price a couple of years back (by Melbourne House). Wearing golden battle shorts and armed with, well, nothing very much, you decide to clean up the streets - which look pretty clean to me already, but never mind (perhaps the street cleaners did their stuff this morning). At least, "cleaning up the streets" is your excuse, as all you seem to do in Stage One is beat up little old ladies and Andy Warhol lookalikes who throw bricks at you. Perhaps it's the presence of a huge muscle-bound lunk like you that so offends them. So you punch, and punch some more, and in the classic Renegade style people fall over and vanish in thin air. The sprites are rather larger here than in that splendid old beat-'em-up, but overall the game hasn't the same subtlety, or indeed long term appeal. But for three quidlets, it's not a bad game of its type. Fans of mindless violence will lap it up.

WHAT A BARG!

Summertime, summertime, summer, summer, summertime! Hurrah - summer is here! And what better way to celebrate the advent of sunny, carefree days than by locking yourself in your bedroom and playing a load of Speccy games? With the seemingly unstoppable spread of budget software, we here at YS thought it would be quite a wheeze to sort out the brass from the dross. So take your seats and upset your neighbour's popcorn as JON PILLAR whisks you with shameless bias through a roundup of the best £3.99ers around.

BEAT 'EM UP GAMES

Street Hassle
Virgin Mastertronic/Issue 51
Reviewer: Jon Pillar

The authors of WOTEF went a bit funny one weekend and came up with this OTT fight game. You play Underwear Man and have to battle a bunch of loonies. The special moves are just plain silly, and the whole thing is preposterously addictive.