Freddy Hardest en Manhattan Sur


by Carlos Galucci, Juan Arias, Juan Gaspar, Roberto Eimer, Enrique Ventura
Dinamic Software
1989
Sinclair User Issue 105, Nov 1990   page(s) 32

Label: Codemasters
Price: £2.99
Reviewer: Gary Liddon

We all know them. People whose pent up anxieties can only be communicated in meaningless acts of street violence. People whose face punching habits are just repeated cries for sympathy, love, acceptance and most importantly help. What can we do? How can we help them?

That's right! Shine up your best pair of ten high steelys, get out on the streets and kick them all in! It really is the best plan and Guardian Angel from Codemasters is just right place to get in a bit of practice. Or is it?

The aim of the game is to kick in as many people as possible whilst avoiding a duffing yourself. And that's it really - level after level of that sort of thing with the bad guys getting more and more tooled up. In your amoury of defensive and offensive moves are a few different kicks and punches attained with joystick and fire button manipulations. Look out for the odd fork lift truck driving psycho ploughing about the screen and when you do see him, running away is a wise move. Even your hardest and most spot on flying drop kicks will do no good.

It's not a lot of fun. Even trying your very hardest it's hard to avoid getting a terminal pasting. And the control's really sluggish, a bit like skate boarding in a bowl of syrup. Maybe the main guy's drunk. Talk about a well oiled fighting machine.

As for the graphics, about as pleasing to the eye as red hot needles dug into the back of the optic nerve. The hero's chin is brilliant. I've seen some big ones in my time but the huge loaf of bread poking out of this bloke's face really takes the biscuit. It's a sort of Jimmy Hill, Bruce Forsyth hybrid sticking out at a very strange angle. Apart from that the yucko scrolling and blobby bad guys really aren't very nice. For self haters only.


Graphics: 69%
Sound: 40%
Playability: 38%
Lastability: 39%
Overall: 39%

Summary: Angel of death more like. There aren't many better reasons for saving your money.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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