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======================================================================
AMIGA POWER Issue #41 coverdisk (.ADF/PAL) September 1994
======================================================================
This month's disks are the keys to a whole new world. Simply walk up
to a scientist prominent in the field of parallel dimension gateways,
frown, and say, "Sign this letter authorising me to teleport to
Alternative 604, or I shall strike you repeatedly with these hard
squares of plastic."
Introducing disk 41...
PUTTY SQUAD
Putty Squad is, quite simply, the best platform game we've played
for months, and utterly refutes any suggestion that there's no life
left in the genre, and anyone who writes one should be instantly
buried alive under 100,000 unsold copies of their own game. Buy why
not find out for yourself with our brilliant 8-level demo?
EMPIRE SOCCER
See for yourself why we gave Empire Soccer 90% last month with our
exclusive demo. And then stop buying rubbish football games by
mistake.
MINE RUNNER
It's exactly what it sounds like! There are some mines, and you run
in them. And, in fact, it's just like Lode Runner.
SCORCHED TANKS
It's exactly what it sounds like! A version of that old 'tanks'
game, scorched a bit.
======================================================================
EMPIRE SOCCER
Author: Graftgold
We got a pit panicked in the AP office when we found out that the disk
demo of Empire Soccer had been promised to 'another party'. We cried,
we wailed and we gnashed our teeth because we thought that you, our
respected readers, were missing out on such a great game -- a game
that we rated an astonishingly high 90 percent in the last issue.
Fiercely we swooped on Empire and made unpleasant noises in the backs
of our throat. But our righteous anger was assuaged when the
terrified publishers whimpered that the 'other party' had been given a
rushed-out early pre-prod version of the game, and that we could
actually have a 'tweaked' version of the complete, fully implemented
and totally finished version game. Conclusive proof that everything
comes to he who waits. Hee hee. And, indeed, ha ha and ho ho.
The 'tweak' takes the form of a timer: after a tantalising 90
seconds the game finishes, having given you just enough time to have a
good play, get mightily impressed and yearn for more. This of course
is a deliberate ploy by Empire to get you to run out and buy the game,
but in this case we heartily endorse this act of shameless
commercialism. Except Jonathan Nash, but he obviously doesn't count.
DANGEROUS SPORTS
Rather than going for a typical football sim which would never have
been as good as Sensible Soccer anyway, Graftgold have programmed a
furious arcade version of this much loved sport, and it's not without
good reason that we've dubbed it 'Speedball 2 in Shorts'. The
controls are all very straightforward and context sensitive, so Fire
means either pass or tackle depending on whether you've got the ball
or not. Aftertouch is also available, so if you waggle the joystick
after you've kicked, it'll swerve the ball.
Then there are the completely-unrealistic-and-bonkers-but-
nevertheless-extremely-exciting special power-ups for that extra
Speedball 2 feel. Whenever the SP flashes at your end of the timer
bar, it means that the next player to hit the ball will execute the
move of your choice. Actually, execute's a fitting term, since
special moves such as Power Drive and Super Barge can render anything
up to four of the opposing player unconscious, and that's without
incurring a penalty. Violence in sports sims is surely something to
be encouraged. Well, isn't it? (I agree. -- André Escobar)
======================================================================
SCORCHED TANKS
Author: Michael Welch
Oddly, despite the game stating boldly that it caters for 512K
owners, you may have a bit of trouble getting it to work on such a
humble machine. Still, eh? Scorched Tanks is top ballistic fun for
anything up to four players -- and that's got to be good news for the
modern fan of explosive projectiles. We've seen many of these 'shoot
the tank at the other side of the hill' type games over the years, but
this one's got more fiddly bits, add-ons and features than all of them
put together.
For an easy life one-player game, make yourself player one by
selecting the human icon, set the money to maximum, and then set the
other three players to the microchip icon, and turn their intelligence
down. This puts you in a great position to buy loads of cool weapons
to lob at stupid enemies, but the real challenge comes playing against
your friends.
The shop's divided up into shields and weapons, so buy some shields
first, and then click on the 'Initial Shield' box for your first
choice. Some shields take hits while others repel shots, so try one
of each. The weapons have different and quite spectacular effects,
all with hilarious consequences, so be sure to try everything.
(Useful ones to start with are nukes, cascades, weasels and
piledrivers.)
For protection, buy about six parachutes to protect your tank from
crashing into a crater, a Move Tank just in case someone zeroes in on
you, and maybe a Plasconverter that turns all the ground near impact
into rubber. You're now ready to kill kill kill!
INCOMING
Power and angle can be changed either by clicking on the arrows, or
clicking on the number and then moving the bars about. You fire
whatever's highlighted, and have to keep an eye on the shield power
and armour which ticks down on the right, but you can change your
shields around by clicking on Shields (quite unsurprisingly) before
you select a weapon. If the armour gets to zero, that's it. Bang.
We love this game, we really do. All of us. Except Dave, who
said, "What's the point in another version which adds so little to the
genre?" -- a fatal lapse of judgment that has resulted in his instant
dismissal. 'Bye Dave.
======================================================================
PUTTY SQUAD
Author: System 3
A1200 Only
Six complete levels plus two secret levels adds up to an awfully large
demo, but there again, the complete game's hoofingly huge anyway. All
hail AMIGA POWER!!! All thanks to System 3!!! Now, there are two
ways you can go about this -- you can either flick to page 38 and read
Cam's glowing review of the game, or you can play it right now and
then read the review, well-prepared to agree with Cam's conclusions.
Either way, it's one of the finest games we've seen all year.
You control Putty in his quest to rescue red MIA puttys that have
been captured in the war against Napalm the cat. This one-blob
Rambo-esque mission is aided by four entirely different things.
1) YOU ARE A PIECE OF PUTTY
Try pressing Right and Fire together and watch Putty streeeeetch
across the level. Press Down while near an object and watch him melt
into the floor and absorb it into his body. Press Down and Fire and
watch him slurp through the floor. It may not impress the girlies,
but being a tactile piece of goo does have its advantages.
2) YOU'RE FRIENDS WITH DWEEZIL (ALMOST)
Putty's arch-enemy of the first game is now on his side, although no
one's very happy about it. The next best thing to a spring is
Dweezil's bod, so if you lure him to you with the cat food and then
punch him, you can trampoline on his stomach to bounce up to higher
levels. If you don't punch him, he'll smack you and leave a bomb,
which could be helpful.
3) YOU CAN PICK THINGS UP
Go to an object and melt into the floor, and it'll be absorbed by
Putty. If it's food then his energy lights will go green, but if it's
Nitro, a spring, catfood, or a rocket-firing imp, then it'll appear in
the box at the top. To toggle through these, press Down and then Left
or Right, and to release or use an object, press Fire and it will
appear on the screen.
4) STARS ARE GOOD THINGS
Pick up stars to increase Putty's punching power, and bear in mind
that every time you get hit, you lose a star as well as a life point.
Oh, and while you're doing all this, look out for secret doors, pick
up the shields and glasses and the like, find the red Putties, absorb
them all and then escape to the next level through the door. Enjoy,
eh?
======================================================================
MINE RUNNER
Authors: Matthias Bock, Andreas Scholl
Graphics vs Playability -- that old political hot potato. Give this
one a blast though, and everything becomes clear -- a great game's a
great game, and if it's got good graphics then all the better.
This one hasn't (got particularly stunning graphics that is) but
it's more than compensated by all the levels (150 at least) and
furiously addictive gameplay of that old chestnut Lode Runner.
Geriatric video games, there's really nothing like them.
You control a little man who's trapped in a mine with a gang of
people intent on killing him. All this is slightly understandable if
you bear in mind that there are heaps of gold bars lying around, and
if you manage to gather them all then you can escape off the top of
the screen. I mean, if you had a mine full of bullion, you'd be
precious about it too, wouldn't you? (I agree. -- André Escobar)
Contact with any of the baddies means instant death, but in your
defence you do have a shovel. Normal people would club their
attackers until their heads burst open, but for reasons never fully
explained (which happens a lot in video games, doesn't it?) he digs
holes and lets the attackers fall into them. You can then run over
their heads, and if the hole heals up in a disturbingly organic manner
while the baddy's still struggling to escape, then he's toast. Loads
of fun, loads of levels and more horrifying deaths than you can shake
the official AMIGA POWER shaking-stick at. Hooray!
======================================================================
AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS: Never trust Northerners or
Scandinavians.
Amiga Power is printed in the UK. Copyright Future Publishing 1994
Note: Maybe you'll have better luck getting Putty Squad to work than
I did. Be sure to enable AGA support.
Docs re-keyed courtesy of Knuckles Dragon. Original author uncertain.
Please send clarification to: knucklesd@hotmail.com