BARGAIN BASEMENT

He's chirpy and chatty, he's the chap with the cheapies, he's Marcus Berkmann, and he's back with a meaty BARGAIN BASEMENT.

Zeppelin Games
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

And still the variations continue. What's next? I myself am currently writing Ninja Vet, which some people (like the software company) seem to think is about Vietnam veterans, but is really about sticking your hands up cows' bottoms (make sure you're wearing rubber gloves). Ninja Commando, meanwhile, is about nothing much at all, a pallid chase-about in underground caverns - which bears only the slightest similarity to all its 349,250 ninja predecessors. For yes, there is no fighting. To kill the baddies in this horizontal scroller, you just have to jump on them. Squash enough and a ninja star appears from nowhere. Kill enough with that and you get a beumb. (A beumb? Ed) After that it's a fairly nifty flame thrower (sorts out the men from the charred corpses, doncha know), and then a machine gun, which shows you're not just mucking about (especially as all your enemies appear to be unarmed). Meanwhile, you have to get through eight multi-screen scrolling levels, and, if you do, you win the game

Is it worth it though? Well, if you were a fan of Rolling Thunder, you may well like this, but on the whole it's not a terribly exciting game. Although the graphics are impressive, and there are no complaints on playability or speed, there's an indefinable something missing from this game. Addictiveness? Excitement? That tangy aroma of squeezed lemons? All three, I'd say, which makes the game something of a neatly programmed damp squib. There's just not enough variety in the gameplay to keep you fully gripped, and no amount of brilliant graphics can make up for that. Not, I think, a long termer.

Label: Zeppelin
Author: Brian Cross
Price: £2.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

A tacky budgetty sort of title, seems to automatically ensure a cheap tacky budgetty sort of game, but Ninja Commando, despite the awful title is a surprisingly enjoyable game.

You, are as usual, a Ninja Commando of the highest degree. Unstoppable is how he's described on the back of the suspiciously-Code Master-like packaging (complete with authentic quotes such as 'Brilliant graphics' and 'Excellent animation'). Didn't seem very unstoppable to me. When I was controlling him, he was stopped more than once or twice.

You run from left to right over a monochrome multi-level scrolling landscape, jumping on and off platforms and fighting the bad guys. Fighting started as being a bit of a problem. You can collect weapons as you progress through the game, The weapons are obtained by killing the bad guys. The only problem is that you don't have a weapon at the start of the game, and contact with the bad guys means instant death.

What the instructions don't tell you, and this is something that took me more than one or two failed attempts to discover, is that you actually have to jump on the bad guys to kill them when in unarmed mode. Make a note of that, you are the first ever easily stoppable unstoppable ninja who knows absolutely no form of martial art or self defence.

So, you're running along from right to left, leaping on and off platforms and killing the bad guys, But what exactly is the game about. Well, it's about running from right to left, jumping on and off platforms and killing the bad guys, that's it. Now come on, how is anybody supposed to take a budget game called Ninja Commando seriously if it doesn't have a really far fetched plot about some evil emperor and contains lots of names like Ken-oh and Dan-oh.

The graphics are small, but very well defined and animated. So, the main character (the ninja) looks more like Morph than a black assassin of death, but at least he runs convincingly. The backdrops are a little samey in places, and the complete lack of colour anywhere, including the front end, does spoil the look of the game a tad.

It plays well, and after the immediate gameplay glitch of working out how to kill anything, it does become enjoyable. Very, in fact. It's nothing special or outstanding, and it won't set any new standards, but it's still good. One of the better budget releases.

Spectrum
£2.99

Not another Ninja game?! This one's from the programmers of that jolly blast, Zybex, and puts Mr Ninja on the horizontally-scrolling road to destiny, which, much to his chagrin, is populated by a multitude of angry anti-ninjas. Lucky for him, then, that he can do away with them just by jumping on their heads, or even (if he stomps his quota of nasties) take them out with shurikens, bombs, Ninja-flames and a handy machine gun.

Ninja Commando on the '64 is probably the best of the bunch, having nicely animated, if weeny, sprites, and a modicum of good Ninja-bashing gameplay. One thing that irritated me with all the versions, though, was the above average difficulty level, which on its own wouldn't be so bad, but it's a bit much for your fellah to lose all is weapons when he dies as well.