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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
-