10. FIRE AND FORGET II (37%, issue 6)

Steve Jarratt’s review doesn’t sound promising from the start.

“Following in the skidmarks of Fire And Forget comes Fire And Forget II“. Ouch!

The plot, he says, “drivels on about international peace conferences and imminent terrorist attacks” – but none of that’s really got anything to do with playing the game, which is a sort of crap Crazy Cars with guns. You drive and shoot and drive and shoot – if the “scrolling” lets you – until you reach the head of each terrorist convoy. Then you destroy it and the weapon that it carries. There are the expected powerups along the way – extra fuel, new weapons, all that.

The main problem here is the lack of sensation of speed: for a start, it looks like the road’s just moving underneath you as the car stays still. Now, that’s a well known technique in racing games on the C64 – Turbocharge does it. But there’s lots of scenery along the way to trick you into thinking you’re moving at pace in Turbocharge. That’s why you keep seeing palm trees and statues and little houses in it. The side of the roads here, though, are barren. And the other thing about your car sprite not moving is that if you take your hands off the joystick, it quickly becomes apparent you don’t even need to steer. You just keep going forward as if you’re on rails.

There’s some nice parallax scrolling and an airbourne bit does break things up, but it’s not enough to save a frustrating, half-baked snorefest. Remember we were talking about Turbocharge? Yes. Get that instead. CF

CF SAID: “It’s dull, poorly designed and tedious to play. Best to forget this one too.”

WE SAY: With the car seemingly on autopilot, it’s like there’s no game at all.