Reviews

Knuckle Busters [Melbourne House]

When I first heard about this game I hoped it was a conversion of the Knuckle Joe coin op, but it isn't, although it has a couple of things in common: platforms and beatings. You're escaping from prison to avoid a lobotomy in some futuristic dystopia, dressed up as an American Football player, and you must punch and kick your way through about five zones, to get out of the city, which is about to explode, because, of course, you even meddled with the Central Computer.
There are demented guards running back and forth, and you can face them or try to avoid them, anyway if you fight them you only have two moves, a kick and a punch, which is rather disappointing coming from the beat'em up masters of Mebourne House. There are other features: your opponents may have useful keys, crates and barrels that can be destroyed revealing some food replenishing your energy (or a booby trap), and many many doors, complicating your route to freedom. It's a bit hard, repetitive and the fighting sequences are not great fun.
Nice presentation and music, though.
2,5/5

Absolute crap! knuckle Buggers!

I start as I mean to go on! Absolute crap! Knuckle Buggers, I really had that written on the case of my copy as well.

I can't believe Melbourne house shat this shat out as a fucking full price title, what a fucking laugh!

I bought this on the Ricochet re-release, and was super disappointed I always thought it looked really great.

I was expecting some kind of tribute to Knuckle Joe, which is a pretty bog standard smack-em'-up coin-op, but it has it's merits. The Commode version of this game seems to bare some homage towards the said title.

The Speccy version seems to have completely lost it though. Better hope you have a working joystick, because if you want to use keys the pause seems to think its perpetually the fire button. Get past this shit and it's running along with you overweight football helmet wearing spaz, as reject Cybermen with Downs Syndrome attack from all directions.

Have fun jumping up and down between the 3 levels of platforms and getting kicked to death in seconds, as your punches and kicks do nothing in return.

Graphics are decent but stupid, and completely miss the point, the instructions well I won't say they lied, but they're certainly misleading.

The game is a total wank splat, I'd rather have Barry Sheen autograph both my eyeballs with the bare source material than ever play this fucking travesty of a game ever again!

£8.95 for a fucking turd like this was a pisstake in 1987, I'd have slit my wrists if I'd wasted that kind of money on the full price release I felt like doing it after paying £1.99 for it.

Fortunately there were lots of other things that could make me slightly happy back then, stuff that would make me feel not so happy now.....Growing up sucks....

I played this back in the day, it was shit, and 30 years later not much has changed. This is the only game Paul Gomm is credited with, three minutes of this and you'll see why.