Go!
£8.99
Platform games are something I don't spend much time thinking about. When you've seen one you've seen 'em all, right? Well, not quite. If you can have massive sprites, and detailed scrolling backgrounds then it makes you wake up. If you see a complex arcade adventure scenario in the game, it makes you sit up and take notice. But if it's also the fastest and hardest arcade blast 'em up you've seen for a long time, you start reaching for your joystick. Trantor is all these things, and works on these different levels (no pun intended) brilliantly. The graphics are top notch, and the animation very smooth and lifelike, considering the size of the graphics.
You take on the role of Trantor, a stormtrooper in command of an earth ship sent to a strange alien planet to retrieve stolen missile plans. Two things complicate the mission: firstly the planet is overrun with horrid, slimy and vicious alien creatures. Secondly, as Trantor leaves the ship, it blows up taking all his men with it, leaving him alone to complete the task. The Earth's mission controllers wanted to blow up the ship after the mission, destroying the soldiers and the plans so that it would remain secret. But the bomb goes off early, and now Trantor is alone and it's a race against time. You see, stormtroopers have bodybombs, microscopic explosive devices implanted under the skin, and at a given signal they start counting down to explode. Trantor's is counting down, which means he's got to work fast. He runs down the corridors of the underground alien complex, blasting aliens with his powerful flame thrower, in a frenzied race to discover the code sequence to the matter transporter, his only means of escape. Along the way, he discovers computer terminals, which, by means of a communications link to Earth, reset his body-bomb and give him one of the letters of the code. By hopping between these he can prolong his life just long enough to reach his goal, bobbing down to avoid low flying aliens and picking up first aid kits, computer pass keys and energy giving food.
It's the graphics on this game that really make it something out of the ordinary, but the sound, especially the title screen music, is superbly done. (Snouty Tip: record the title screen music onto a C10 tape and play it during the game for maximum enjoyment!) The game is hard if you just play it as a shoot 'em up, but much more satisfying if you go for the full arcade adventure bit. Wonderful entertainment and worth much more than the asking price. Buy it!
BARGAIN BASEMENT
They're certainly cheap, but are they cheerful? Marcus Berkmann rootles around in the YS Lucky Dip...
Kixx
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann
First reviewed in December 1987 this was the first game we ever saw from Probe, and now reappears - as things do - on this 'ere Kixx thing. It's a shoot 'em up in the Spanish style - lots of lovely graphics, attractive backgrounds and nasties, but a little thin on gameplay. Trantor has 90 seconds before bodybombs sewn under his skin (yuk) explode, during which time he must run through the corridors of an underground alien complex, blasting nasties with his flamethrower, in a frenzied race to discover the code sequence to the matter transporter, his only means of escape.
Along the way he discovers computer terminals which give him one of the letters of the code and reset his bodybomb, and by hopping between these he can prolong his life just long enough to reach his goal, bobbing down to avoid low-flying aliens and picking up first aid kits, computer pass kits and energy-giving food. All good fun, and indeed last time round Phil gave it a Megagame, mainly, I think, because of the stupendous graphics. But time is cruel. While the backgrounds, aliens and particularly Trantor himself look fabbo, the gameplay now seems ever so slightly tedious - and it's hard in a frustrating rather than an invigorating way. Still, I carp - or even herring. For three nicker it's still a birrova steal, and blast fanatics could do much worse.
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