Beverly Hills Cop


by Steven Robson
Tynesoft
1990
Sinclair User Issue 98, Apr 1990   page(s) 69

Label: Tyne Soft
Author: Subway Software
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

I haven't seen such a poor conversion in a very long time. It's as atmospheric as a vacuum and funny in all the wrong places.

There are four stages, each loosely representing some action in the film. The first; the warehouse level is a pale imitation of stage 1 in the Untouchables. Eddie waddles around like a plank using apparently inexhaustable supply of bullets to plug hundreds of baddies. Once you've guided Eddie to the right hand side of the screen, you progress to the next level.

Stage two is a road chase in the Outrun mould. Pursuing the trucks laden with arms from the warehouse, you've got to stop them from reaching Bruno Bardolino's mansion (why he's no longer called Victor Maitland I don't know).

The mechanics of this section are quite good; the 3D road shifts at a respectable speed and you've got reasonably precise control over the car you're driving. The bad guys sling boxes of ammo out of the back of the trucks. Should you run them over, a devastatingly terrifying 'Splat' flashes onto the screen. I guess Tyne Soft have suffered at the hands of a restrictive contract prohibiting Axel Foley from being killed or blown up.

Stage 3 (Storming the mansion) is a migraine-inducingly tedious maze-cum shoot-out. Remember Outlaw, the prehistoric cowboy shoot-out involving two cowboys and some badly drawn cactii? Well this stage has strong similarities. Although viewed top-down, the objects are viewed from the side. This tell whether large expanses of stone are walls or pavement. The crooks are littered around the grounds of the mansion and take apathetic pot-shots at you.

Stage 4 is a 3D maze game inside the mansion. You've got to track down a hostage, shoot some more crooks and finally nick Mr Big. Considering the movie came out about five years ago, the wait for the game really hasn't been worth it.


Graphics: 50%
Sound: 50%
Playability: 45%
Lastability: 40%
Overall: 48%

Summary: Eddie wouldn't be pleased.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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