Capcom in acid house shocker!
Producer: Go!/Capcom
Trippin' out: £8.99 cass, £12.99 disk
Author: Probe
Get down to the groovy, Acid House beat with this Oriental beat-'em-up. Tory MP Ivan Aston-Martin claims 'It's a disgrace!' (are you sure about this? - Ed) although Capcom claim the use of the infamous Smiley logo to represent lives is totally innocent.
In ancient China the ruthless Ryu Ken Oh has kidnapped some defenceless children ('It's a disgrace' - Rt Hon Aston- Martin). Martial arts expert Lee Wong sets off to rescue the kiddies. At first he has only an axe, but can exchange it for more useful weapons, like spears and sickles, by hitting special urns.
A mixture of horizontally-scrolling levels and small rooms must be completed before you meet Mr Oh himself. Some of these are populated by hordes of sword-swinging minions, while others contain more ruthless opponents which can kill with a single blow. Some extra-large baddies can grab Lee and throw him for a fatal fall.
Animation of the fighters is very basic - no matter where you hit an opponent, the 'hit' always shows up on his neck. Colour is also used only in layers across the screen, although this is far better than monochrome. Nonetheless, the game has a sloppy appearance - the one vertically-scrolling level is appalling (the hero just floats upwards as decapitated dragons' heads chase him).
Gameplay is also poor, simply consisting of bashing baddie after baddie. Even the larger opponents can be easily despatched by repetitive slashing ('Disgusting!' - Mrs Whitehouse). Still, allegations that playing this at 2am, while sniffing smelly socks, produces hallucinations have been tested and proved totally false.
PHIL [45%]
THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: jerky sprites on dull, usually yellow, backgrounds
Sound: fair oriental tune, but dull in-game effects
There's a fair variety of fair aggressive opponents with different attack methods, quite a few different weapons to deal with them and a passable tune. Unfortunately the largely monochromatic graphics are poorly drawn and move jerkily. Given the complete lack of originality, the repetitive gameplay and the ease with which it is completed this seems something of a waste of time. While not a terrible game, it has little to attract potential buyers.
MARK [49%]
Kixx
£2.99 re-release
As Lee Wong you must undertake the rescue of kidnapped children and bring them back to their village. Enemies on your travels include giants, samurai warriors and dragons: that must mean Tiger Road is a very basic oriental style beat-'em-up! it is! There are some elaborate graphics and the game is colourful from end to end. Fighting is a simple affair, you just swing the weapon in your hand. Most enemies will take just one swipe to get shot of but the bigger ones need up to eight.
If you don't fancy doing any killing on level one then you can just jump over everyone and walk into level two! Very challenging. A variety of weapons are available but they don't seem to help a lot! The best course of action is to get off each level as fast as possible. I've seen better.
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