Latex leaders fight it out

Producer: Domark
Buckets of Spit: £9.95 cass, £14.95 disk
Author: Walking Circles

If you're a regular watcher of Spitting Image you shouldn't be surprised by the game, which has got some great presentation but - like the show's jokes - is a little rough around the edges and lacking in originality. The basic idea is that in seven year's time WWIII will happen and all the leaders are battling it out to be top dog. The six contenders are Ronnie Reagan (I'm right because Nancy says so), the Pope (I'm right because God tells me so), the Ayatollah Khomeini (and me), PW Botha (we're right because we're white), Mrs Thatcher (we're right because we're right-wing) and, of course, Gorbachev (I know we're wrong, I know).

Portraits of these world leaders are arranged around a picture of the world (complete with burning fuse). You start the game by picking which leaders are going to fight it out next and the second leader you pick is the one you control. The scene then switches to a background appropriate to one leader and combat begins. Now we all know world leaders never engage in physical violence - they have armies and Oli North for that - but here they do, each with his or her own special move. Mrs T, for example, blows cigar smoke in her opponent's face, while Reagan head butts. You can also call in a friend who will run on to lob missiles at an opponent, Mrs Thatcher uses Denis while the Pope has his cardinals. On 128K machines it's all one load, on 48K machines leaders must be loaded individually.

Once a leader has been beaten five times he's out of contention for 'leader of a thermonuclear pile of dust'. If your leader survives you can then pick another two leaders to tango together. When all of them have been beaten the lights go out and you take on a mystery guest.

The identity of this mystery guest isn't all that hard to discover, I've finished the game quite a few times and wasn't too impressed by its difficulty. What did impress me was the quality of the graphics which amusingly recreate the puppet caricatures used in the TV show. Sound isn't too bad either. The humorous effect soon wears off, however, when you've got to struggle with a sluggish control response. In two-player mode it's obviously more fun, but hardly enough to justify purchase if you've got any other kind of two-player beat-'em-up game.

MARK [68%]

THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: beautiful title screen and some easily recognisable ingame characters
Sound: great title tune but only simple bashing, ingame effects
Options: definable keys. Choose which leader you play

The six world leaders are excellently drawn, with presentation to match. Sadly, the gameplay is far too easy to master. Once the best tactics are discovered, completion becomes a mere formality by repeated use of one move. Even ignoring this problem, I'm disappointed that more imagination wasn't used for such an intriguing licence. Spitting Image is just a mediocre beat-'em-up which looks far better than it plays.
PHIL [55%]

Spitting image is one of those games that will obviously sell because of its name, which is fortunate for Domark, since there's little other reason to buy it. As you can see from the tips gameplay is repetitive and flawed. The best part of the game is undoubtedly the graphics - like so many other licensed games.
NICK [68%]

Domark
£9.95 cass/£14.95 +3 disk
Reviewer: Matt Bielby

Who are the six most important people m the world? According to my morning paper they'd be cuddly Emma Ridley, family-sized Fergie, oddish Michael Jackson and the swoony' Bros triplets, or some similar combination. 'Not so!' chorus the decidedly posh' Domark boys, who obviously read rather more upmarket publications than yours truly. Their six-pack includes such bastions of sense and moderation as P. W. Botha, Ayatollah Khomeni and the (newly unemployed) leader of the free world, Mr Ronald 'McDonald' Reagan What a nice, happy go lucky bunch!

Along with Maggie, Gorby and the Pope these feature as the combatants in Domark's first (licensed) beat 'em up based on the Spitters TV show. It's a pretty standard sort of slash 'n' bash (or m this case fart 'n' gob) affair, with the various obnoxious world leaders swinging away at each other with the prize being - gosh! gasp! eek! - the World!

It's a good licence, even if the TV pundits around here reckon the mother show is currently riding the slippy slope down the televisual dumper. From the box featuring the famous Fluck and Law puppets, to the 'witty' instruction sheet, the whole package does its little best to reproduce the look and feel of the family favourite, and this continues on screen with each large sprite looking and acting the part to a tee.

Biff! Duck and dive as our 'beloved' leader Thatch lets loose with the boxing glove and flying spittle! Thwack! Stagger under the onslaught as Ronnie attacks with head-butts and broken bottles! Pok!' Squirm as groovy Gorby and his holiness the Pope jab away with the finger and banjo! Wallop! Drip as Botha 'piddles' in your direction and choke as the Ayatollah gets his hands around your larynx! The main selling point seems to be that it's all rather rude, naughty and cheeky compared to standard beat 'em up fare.

To start you must choose a world leader to play with (Oo-er) and then take on the others in turn against a series of suitably cartoony backdrops. Battles tend to be fast and fun, and with some competent playing will eventually leave only one homicidal statesperson - yourself.

Hang on a minute though! The world needs saving from you too, doesn't it? Sounds like a job for... the Queen?! Yep, Ma'am' herself leaps down from her action-watching spot on the icon strip to mud-wrestle you into the pavement. Unfortunately this takes place at night so all you can see is pairs of eyes in established comic strip (and code-saving) fashion. In the experience of all the YS players there is absolutely NO WAY to win this last bit of the game, so whatever your efforts the world remains safe. Phew, what a relief, eh? And to think we owe it all to Her Majesty.

The game is generally well thought out and designed and has proved to be quite a lot of fun on other systems but unfortunately on the Spectrum it has two rather glaring faults. The first is that once you've had fun discovering all the rude and bizarre bits you're left with a rather ordinary and not particularly hard beat 'em up. The other - far more serious problem - is with the loading. First you must load side one of the tape, then flip it over to take the characters themselves from the other side which takes ages. Then each time you lose and want another go you have to reload all six characters from side two again! Yaaghh! At this rate you'll spend 40 minutes loading out of every hour! Since both copies we got acted in exactly the same way, it doesn't seem to be a fault with the tape but a design problem. How silly.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

RICH PELLEY goes dizzy over the latest batch of Codies games and JON PILLAR has quite a bit of trouble getting a word in edgeways.

The Hit Squad
£2.99
Reviewer: Jon Pillar

Based on the telly programme (in case you hadn't guessed) you play one of 6 world leaders (4 of whom have since either resigned or died) with the aim of destroying your opponents' credibility and thus blow up the Earth. To do this you must struggle through the 'hilarious' instructions and the 'crap' jokes, before taking on each leader in 5 no-holds- barred bouts. Apart from the normal bashing moves, the leaders have a special weapon (Gorby's got a deadly yo-yoo, for example) and a loyal sidekick (who can be called upon to lob suitable items at the other players). Beat them all and you face the ultimate challenge - mud-wrestling with a mystery opponent in the dark.

The sprites are smooth and there are some very nice graphic touches (like the large, animated caricatures) but unfortunately the game designers forgot one thing - the game. It only takes a couple of picoseconds to cotton on to how to win everytime (and no I'm not going to tell you), after which there's, rather unsurprisingly, no desire to. Tsk, tch and oh, as they say, well.

Label: Domark
Author: Walking Circles
Price: £9.95/£14.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Do you ever get the feeling that there's nothing that isn't getting licensed as a computer game? If Domark can make a game out of a satirical comedy puppet series, what can we expect next? John Ketley's Weather Game? Emmerdale Farm Arcade Adventure?

At least Spitting Image manages to be fairly funny and fairly gamey at the same time, rather than sacrificing one to emphasise the other. In effect this is a martial arts-style combat game, in which the combatants are world leaders; Margaret Thatcher, Ronnie Reagan, the Pope, President Gorbachev, the Ayatollah and lovely old Pik Botha. In order to avert a world war, you must choose one a your hero, and control him or her as he (or she) takes on all the others. There's also a two-player option in which the format is the same but you don't get to save the world at the end.

The cartoon-style characters are nicely drawn and animated. Particularly clever are the little details which you hardly notice during the battles; the way Mrs Thatcher's wig slips loose, Ronnie's neck telescopes out and so on.

Once you've chosen your characters, the scene switches to the defending premier's home country; outside Number 10, on a South African rugby field and so on. The portraits of each character appear on each side of the screen, and there's the familiar energy bar to left and right. Now it's you job to punch, kick, butt, knee and jab your opponent into oblivion, just like in the U.N., in a best of five series.

Fighting moves are controlled by joystick or keyboard, and include hits to head, body and feet, and a special move which changes for each character - Botha, for instance, hits out with what looks like a yo-yo(!?!). You'll find, though, that you're constantly under attack from your opponent's little sidekick, who appears from the right hand side of the screen and bombards you with missiles. Apart from jumping out of the way, you can also hit back by pressing the space bar to summon your own sidekick into the fray, as many times as you like.

The sound effects are fine, and the music, a version of Phil Pope's theme tune of the series, is an excellent David Whittaker bash which, in the 128K version, will have you tapping your feet as you bash heads.

OK, the world doesn't actually need another martial arts game - not even a FUNNY martial arts game, because what with Ninja Hamster and Usagi Yojimbo, there are already a few of those about.

Still, Spitting image is excellently programmed by Walking Circles, provides a few laughs along with the mayhem, and manages to offend everyone, so it can't be bad.

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £9.95, Diskette: £14.95
Amstrad CPC Cassette: £9.95, Diskette: £14.95
Commodore 64/128 Cassette: £9.95, Diskette: £12.95
Atari ST Diskette: £19.95

LEADERBORED

Although Domark have themselves been on the receiving end of Spitting Image's wrath, thanks to their '86 release, Split Personalities, time has healed the wounds it seems. They return to the take-the-piss-out-of-all-and-sundry world of latex with a game they claim is more exciting than Ninja Gerbil - proud boasting indeed.

You get to play one of six world leaders - including Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachov and the Pope - in an effort to beat up the other five in one-on-one confrontations and eventually rule the world.

Each leader has different attack methods, tricks and tactics and they go about duffing each other up in what Domark hope is an amusing fashion. It isn't!

Seeing a drunken Dennis sway on-screen to aid an ailing Maggie is a tired attempt at humour. And watching PW Botha urinate over his adversaries was so funny I wet myself - almost.

Even though this is basically a combat game, one expected more depth than that of IK or Exploding Fist. Unfortunately, the limitations of four moves, plus a partner to help out, proves otherwise.

Resting wholly on its tie in with, and so-called humour of the TV programme, Spitting Image fails to rise above the ranks of a very poor man's Exploding Fist. If you're buying it for the humour (why else?) you may have a fun time for the first hour - but that's all.