REPLAY

Why not let Jon Pillar and Stuart Campbell guide you through this month's re-releases? Oh, go on. Please! You won't regret it.

Zeppelin
£3.99
091 385 7755
Reviewer: Jon Pillar

Another compilation with more games than you could count on three fingers, cos there are four of em. Nobody here can quite figure out the connection between them, but that's nothing new. Let's get on with the review, shall we?

LAS VEGAS CASINO

Casino games rank second only to fruit machine sims in terms of blithering uselessness. What is the point of a gambling game without money? Tsk. Anyway, Las Vegas Casino has four games a-sitting in its lobby - Blackjack, Craps, Baccarat and Roulette. All four are very nicely presented with smooth graphics and all four are terrible. Blackjack is good for about two minutes, craps seems to play quite happily on its own, roulette soaks up another couple of minutes and baccarat is totally incomprehensible. Bleugh.
40°

PRO GO-KART SIM

Sort of WEC Le Mans in a car put together with string. Go-Kart is a rather natty little racer with one infuriating fault. But first, the good bits. It's blazingly fast, with sharp graphics and four track layouts. And now, the infuriating fault bit. The screen is small and the graphics large, thus preventing you from seeing clearly what's going on. The limited track space also makes it pretty difficult to dodge the billions of obstacles. It's fairly good fun. and the high frustration factor bolsters your determination to beat the dratted thing. Not bad.
60°

SABOTAGE

Completely undistinguished vertical scroller with power-ups, masses of aliens and end-of-level baddies which bobbles along pleasantly until you get killed, whereupon it sends you right back to the start of the level. A real pity, as there seems to be a lot to it. Not only is there an attainable goal - beat eight levels and you've won the game - but also secret rooms, and a serviceable plot! You're a secret agent, y'see, and you have to sabotage an enemy army by filching all their blueprints. Tsk. It's addictive stuff in a lazy afternoon sort of way.
55°

JOCKY WILSON'S DARTS CHALLENGE

Darts has always struck me as rather a sad old game, but there you go. On the Speccy it's been well served by 180°, Wacky Dads and indeed Jocky Wilson 1. This 'un can hold its head up high among that respected and some what obese company, featuring as it does head-to-head or Speccy vs human play. There are the usual Round the Clock or Straight Darts options with the even more usual wobbly cursor control method, and the whole thing is very smartly presented. Fun to play, if you've got nothing better to do. such as have a bath or something.
65°

Basically, the sort of compilation your aunt would buy at that nice Mr Butler's corner shoppe. You can't really find anything about it that's blatantly crummy, but at the same time there's nowt to make you hop from one foot to another. Solidly average.

Label: Zeppelin 4X4
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Jason Baptiste

Zeppelin's second Hit Pack (No.2) allows you to drive without a licence (yippee!), gamble without losing any dosh (yum, yum), play darts without getting kicked out of the pub (hurrah!) and sabotage everything in sight with a big gun space ship (way out dude!) and all without getting into trouble with your mum!

Step into that legalised driving seat with Pro-GO Kart Simulator... guaranteed to drive you around the bend. This game is so ozone friendly that its graphics are almost totally green. Although this is an admirable idea it makes them sore on the eyes and doesn't really help gameplay. A total of five competitors (four computer and one human) battle it out in this fast, tough game. With three tracks to choose from and four bikini clad beauties leading you into the action Go Kart Sim will have you furiously wiggling your gear stick for all ninety nine seconds of each race. Face obstacles such as straw bales and lap boards (eh?) and keep your eyes on the road. It's a good job I eat lots of biscuits 'cos you need to be a bit of a jammy dodger to get around this course!

Sabotage is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up. Warm up by destroying dangerous asteroid formations and then partake in some real action as you engage in combat with some very feeble and many more extremely tough enemy spacecraft before finally reaching frightening bubble of doom spitting end of level guardians.

After this long trip your spacecraft will automatically land and you'll emerge as a space infantryman who has to frolic around a maze and collect all the bubbles in the corridors of confusion while trying to avoid the flocks of dangerous birds which fall throughout the maze, out to destroy your spaceman. Bash me on the head with a can of baked beans if I know why space is filled with mazes, bubbles and birds but you need to complete this section to get onto the next level.

If you have the stomach for it Jocky Wilson's Darts will amuse you for hours on end with three different dart games games for your delectation. First off there's a tournament game, where you engage in match play against a series of Darts Champions from around the world as well as good old Jocky himself. The next, a head to head involves two players who come face to face in a grudge match and, last of all, there's a 'round the clock' game where each number on the board from one to twenty has to be hit as quickly as possible within a set time limit to achieve a high score. There is also a handy help option to assist newcomers which tells you were to throw your dart next.

Graphics are reasonable and sometimes look realistic but more colour could have been splashed out on the dart board. The odd floating dart control procedure takes some time to get used to and is best done with a joystick.

Take a gamble and play Las Vegas Casino, a game were the stakes can be high or low, but who cares, you won't lose anything unless you get hooked and take up the real thing! Las Vegas Casino gives you the option to play 4 brill gambling games.

In Blackjack two cards are dealt to both you and your opponent then it's up to you to gamble by 'hitting' for another card or 'standing' with what you have. Craps involves throwing two dice and making one of seven types of bet. In Baccarat you bet on the player or dealer (and sit back and let things happen) then, finally, there's Roulette (Big Al's favourite) where you have to select the odds and spin the wheel, betting on which number it will land on when it stops.

Each game gives £250 as stake money and the main aim is to gamble this money and raise it to £50,000. Graphics are not so good and the overall game is certainly not user friendly to any newcomer.

Overall this pack can be a bit of a gamble too. The darts sim is good and the others are all mediocre Nevertheless it has good variety for a £3.99 compilation so if you like the look of it then don't let me hold you back.

ED LAWRENCE:
I agree with Jason. Unfortunately Sabotage, a potentially good formula blast 'em up, doesn't quite make it and Casino wears off very, very quickly. However, because the pack doesn't have any particular theme it has plenty of variety which does contribute to a moderately high level of lastability.