Ultimate
£9.95
Howdy, pardner, and look what jest rode into town. There wuz a time when the newie from Ultimate meant makin' for the saloon but nowadays.... well, we's none of us too sure if they're goodies or baddies.
Hey, I think I recognise this partic'lar varmint. It's that fellah Nightshade with a cowboy hat. Sure is the same technique used to draw the western town, the same animation of the central figure.... and durn me, if the plot ain't mighty similar too.
This time you take the sherriff round the town, shooting bandits and avoiding the populace which consists mostly of sassy women who scuttle into you and kill you. I'd rather face up to the James gang, though don't get gun happy with a local lovely or you'll pay fur it out of your bounty. That leaves less money to buy bullets, the price of which rockets faster than a mute that's sat on a cactus. And talking of quad-ru-peds (Ker-spitt! KLANG!!) there's a hoss to be found aroun' town, though as it's of the panto rather than the pinto variety you'll have to do the runnin'.
Now most of the rogues are jest Mexican marauders who sit there waiting to be shot, but every so often you'se gonna meet a gen-ew-ine grade A outlaw, and that's when you'll need all your quick draw marksmanship. Only, durn it, if I didn't wander fur so long without meeting one.
What ah'm tryin' to tell yer is that despite the mildly economic overlay of bullet an' hoss buyin' and bounty collecting, this is another Ultimate repeat and if you didn't have Nightshade and you're a fan of shoot 'em ups set among durn purdy pictures it'll make you whoop with joy.
Spectrum
Ultimate
Shot='em-up/Adventure
£9.95
In the movie world, 1986 has been hailed as the year of the western. While Pale Rider and Silverado are wowing them on the big screen, Ultimate's Gun Fright is destined for similar success on the computer screen.
As usual in an Ultimate game, the graphics are excellent. Most of the time, the screen is split into a number of areas, to the left of the screen is a colourful "wanted" poster showing a picture of the baddie you have to bring to justice, along with the reward. Beneath that is a display of hats showing how many lives you have left - you start with three.
At the bottom, your score is shown as the amount of dollars bounty earned. Next to this is a graphic display of the number of bullets left in the Sheriff's gun. To the right a telegram window shows the high score, together with the current prices of bullets, horses and fines.
The action window occupies about 40% of the screen.
As Sheriff Quickdraw makes his way around Black Rock, he must avoid bumping into any of the townsfolk, as this results in losing a life, and paying a fine from his score. The score is initialised in a Fast Draw mode screen where shooting at moneybags results in earning money.
Quickdraw is also likely to breathe his last if he walks into a cactus. Quickdraw can speed his travel by riding a pantomime horse, at a cost, but his aim is to hunt out the villain. Once found the screen changes to Fast Draw mode where you see through the sheriff's eyes.
Gun Fright is a witty and welcome change to the wizard-dungeon type of arcade adventure. Yup pardners even Clint Eastwood would approve.
All information in this page is provided by ZXSR instead of ZXDB