'Back
in Time' is a monthly feature
where we look back at the classic video gaming magazines twenty years
ago this month. This month it's September 1991 and the Super Famicom was
beginning to make head roads on the gaming scene with titles such as
U.N. Squadron, while two classics, Streets of Rage and Road Rash, hit
the Mega Drive and God sims were big time with the excellent Mega lo
Mania dominating the Amiga, and in the 8-bit scene, we said
our farewells to one of the longest running C64 magazines...
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Issue
12 of Mean
Machines was full to the
brim with quality console gaming action, with U.N. Squadron
taking the
lead with the cover review on the Super Famicom. Released in Japan as
Area
88, the aerial blaster was
awarded a ‘Mega Game’ with
a rating of 94%. “It’s not a true arcade
conversion,”
explained Julian Rignall, “instead it incorporates levels
from
the coin-op and adds a whole load of new features, making this a much
bigger and more varied game.” Sega’s Mega Drive was
next up
to receive the ‘Mega Game’ plaudits as Road Rash
was given
an overall rating of 91%. “Road
Rash
combines all the thrills of
high-speed racing with a fair dose of extreme violence,”
stated
Richard Leadbetter, “just my sort of game…
definitely the
most action-packed and exciting offering to date.”
The space quest simulation game, Starflight,
landed on the Mega Drive
and surprised everyone by taking an impressive 94% rating.
“Normally, I wouldn’t touch space trading games
like this
with a specially disinfected ten-foot barge pole,” commented
Julian. “But Starflight
isn’t a normal space trading game.
It’s got loads in it, with alien races to meet, a zillion
planets
to explore and loads of hostiles to blow up... I can’t think
of
many Megadrive games better than this.”
Other 90% rated ‘Mega Games’ included Spider-Man vs the
Kingpin on the Mega Drive, Streets
of Rage,
also on the Mega Drive,
Choplifter
II on the Game Boy and R-Type
on the Super Famicom. As
predicted, Sonic
the Hedgehog raced to the top
of the Mega Drive
charts, while Super Mario Land
landed top of the Game Boy chart, World
Cup won first place on the
NES and Spider-Man
clung onto the Master
System top spot. |
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Raze
issue 11 was also full of
its own accolade games, with the ‘Rave’ award given
to a
good handful of games. The famous God sim, Populous,
mad its way onto
the humble Master System and managed a respectable 90%. “The
game
has been tweaked somewhat to improve the gameplay on the Master
System,” explained Les Ellis. “With all these
additions and
improvements, this classic game has taken a step closer to immortality
with this excellent conversion.”
Shadow
Warrior (aka Ninja Gaiden)
slashed onto the NES with a 90%
rating. “What it all boils down to is some dangerously
addictive
gameplay, which surprised me because the horizontal ninja format is a
little tired,” stated Julian Boardman. “However, Shadow
Warrior’s
combination of magic, timing and athleticism make it
one hell of play. Add to that the quality graphics and superb cinematic
screens between levels, not to mention the splendid sound, and it
becomes clear what a quality game this is.”
It was Raze’s
turn to playtest Sega’s newest mascot, Sonic
the Hedgehog. The blue hog
managed to add to his pile of accolades
received so far with a might fine rating of 95%. “Possibly
the
most playable game yet on the Mega Drive,” stated Julian,
“and we don’t have to put up with any more Nintendo
owners
going on about that pesky plumber all the time. Now we’ve got
our
own breed of hero to wave in their faces, and this guy deserves the
adoration.”
The
Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants
became animated on the NES in
the first of many games from the hit television series. Les
Ellis the game 94% and
stated “the game captures all the superb elements of the
cartoon
series… Playing the game is like watching the programme;
funny,
clever, thought provoking, and above all entertaining. The structure of
the game is superb. From the outset, you are intrigued as to
Bart’s situation, and how you can help him.” |
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Amiga
Power issue 5's cover
disk featured a playable demo of Psygnosis’ Barbarian II
(not the
Palace hack ‘n’ slash game) and a handful of PD
games,
including Amigoids
and Metagalactic
Llamas. Topping the Amiga
charts
this month was F-15 Strike Eagle II,
which jumped up from number seven,
followed by Full Contact
and Manchester
United Europe.
Game of the Month pick was undoubtedly Mega lo Mania
from Sensible
Software, which was reviewed by Mark Ramshaw over four pages and given
90%. There was also
a mini-interview with the Sensible lads within the pages. “Mega
lo Mania has to be
congratulated for being the most accessible strategy
game yet,” stated Mark. “Even if you’ve
only ever had
eyes for arcade blasts, once you’ve played this for 15
minutes
you’ll be hooked.”
Next up, AH-37
Thunderhawk flew in to pick
up an 86% rating from
Jonathan Davies. “Thunderhawk
really is a jolly impressive game,
and one that continues to be fun to play even once you’ve
explored all its possibilities over and over again. The Simpsons: Bart
vs the Space Mutants also
managed to garner reasonable ratings on the Amiga with 83%.
“A hot, pure and simple,” explained Matt Bielby.
“A
few false starts, some slippage and the odd weak licence has meant a
disappointing Amiga showing from Ocean this year –
here’s
where it all comes right.”
In ‘Peter Molyneus, what have you started?’, Matt
Bielby
spoke to, erm, Peter Molyneux about his upcoming sequel to the most
famous God sim of all time and asked whether it would be different
enough from the Populous
clones to make an impact. In ‘Second Opinion’, Sean
Kelly from Gremlin takes a
critical eye over some of his more memorable Amiga gaming experiences.
Games that got the nod of approval included The Amazing Spiderman,
TV
Sports: Football, Populous
and, of course, Gremlin’s very own
Switchblade
2.
DMA Design took part in the ‘If We’d Known
Then…’ feature, looking at their past (the hugely
successful Lemmings,
Menace,
Blood
Money and cancelled game Gore)
and
foretelling their future games. More Lemmings
games then, as well as
Walker
(working title for a shoot-‘em-up) and a 3D gun game
called Hired
Gun...
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It was the 115th issue of
Sinclair
User and despite the page
count being obviously less than a
century of issues previously, there was still plenty of Spectrum
action. Hitting the top of the full price charts was Hero Quest
from
Gremlin, while the budget charts’ top spot was taken by Bubble
Bobble from the Hit Squad. Prince
of Persia
on the SAM Coupe impressed
with a 94% rating and an ‘SU Gold’ award.
“This will
be the game that all Sam software will be judged by,” assured
Steve Keen. US Gold’s Spectrum conversion of the arcade game,
Alien
Storm, met with an
‘SU Silver’ award and 87%. Also
gaining an ‘SU Silver’ award was Manchester United Europe
with 85%.
“Britain’s longest-running Commodore 64
magazine” was
no more as issue 83 of YC
turned out to be the last issue published.
The wacky, irrelevant, and sometimes a little childish, magazine had
become one
of the first victims of the early nineties flux of magazine. In the
final issue, YC
included one of the most famous football management
games of all time on the covertape: the very first edition of Football Manager.
Other
games included Goldtrain
and Tank
Battlezone. In the
‘Land of
Make Believe’ article, Jeff Davy looked at the return of
Virtual
Reality, while Code Masters were profiled in ‘Cheapsters For
Your
Love’.
The first ‘YC Fun One’ award of the issue went to
the well
deserved conversion of the classic 16-bit futuristic sports game,
Speedball
2. Given 90%, Richard Taylor
commented that any gamer should
take “a look at this, even if like me, you don’t
like this
kind of game. It really is bloody addictive stuff.”
Taking centre stage – and centre page spread – Terminator 2
was given the ‘YC Fun One’ treatment as Jeff looked
at the
film, the game, the comic books and the music. “This clocks
in as
one of the best ‘game-of-the-film’ adaptations on
the
C64,” commented Jeff as he rated the game 94%. “The
action
is fast and furious, it moves fast, the comic-strip-esque graphics fit
the game very well and the sound is consistent throughout.”
Action Pack 6 time with Amstrad
Action issue 71's covertape,
which included the full game of
Heavy
on the Magick, Lightforce
and demo of Robozone.
No movement in
the Amstrad CPC charts as Teenage
Mutant Hero
Turtles and Panic Dizzy
held on to the Full-Price and Budget chart top spots respectively. The
only ‘AA Rave’ game with 85% went to Builderland
which was
described by Frank O’Connor as a “brilliant Lemmings
variant with some really original features.”
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