Adidas Championship Football/Ocean (YS57, 85)    The nearest thing to Kick Off on the Speccy yet. (128k only though). Batman: The Movie/Ocean (YS47, 91)    A brilliantly-done film conversion, but (ever so slightly) let down by limited driving sequences. Blasteroids/ImageWorks (YS40, 7)    Fine update of an addictive but rather one key arcade classic. Butcher Hill/Gremlin (YS41, 57)    An uninspiring idea for a game tackled in a pretty uninspiring way. No Operation Wolf (no matter how hard it tries). Castle Master/Incentive (YS53, 93)    An excellent (and spooky) addition to the Freescape canon - faster graphics, lovely presentation. A must! Chase HQ/Ocean (YS50, 94)    A brilliant conversion of a very playable coin-op, and in 128k it's absolutely magnificent. A must buy! Command Performance/US Gold (YS41, 77)    A very mixed grill, both in type of game and in standard, but containing a fair amount of crackling nontheless. Dan Dare III/Virgin (YS50, 89)    So close to a Megagame, but not quite close enough, Dan Dare III has gorgeous graphics and great gameplay but there's not all that much there. Shame. Defenders Of The Earth (SAM)/Enigma Variations (YS58, 84)    The first 'proper' SAM game and it's stunning. Perhaps lacking in long-term appeal though. Dragon Spirit/Domark (YS46, 83)    Tricky progressive vertical scroller with some nice touches. Nice one, Tengen! Duel: Test Drive II, The/Accolade (YS48, 52)    Dull to look at and dull to play, with no real impression of speed, frustrating collision detection and a half-baked feel. Dynamite Dux/Activision (YS46, 81)    Very appealing and cute beat 'em up with neat cartoony graphics, but not much variety in gameplay. Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters/Domark (YS55, 83)    A barrel of laughs - very playable, quite fast and full of little graphic touches. Best in two player mode. Extreme/Digital Integration (YS61, 80)    Too short and easy, but as a demo of what the Speccy can do it's one of the games of the year. Forgotten Worlds/US Gold (YS43, 86)    Fast moving and complex shoot 'em up, slightly marred by difficult controls and a lack of real tension. Games: Summer Edition, The/Epyx (YS42, 71)    Professional, but not spectacular sports sim. Ghostbusters II/Activision (YS49, 62)    Stilted, repetitive gameplay and the world's most ridiculous multiload conspire to scupper an exceptionally faithful and pretty film conversion. Ghouls And Ghosts/US Gold (YS48, 91)    Simple but pleasing graphics plus bags of playability equals the best US Gold release this year (possibly). It is a bit hard though. Hammerfist/Activision (YS54, 87)    A well thought-out and rather thrill-packed beat-'em-up/puzzler. Pretty massive too. Impossamole/Gremlin (YS53, 73)    Nice to see Monty back, but this really is a pretty uninspired platform and ladders romp. Better luck next time. Kick Off/Anco (YS50, 80)    Very fast, very playable and very easy to get into, though a bit hopeless visually. Kick Off is the footie game for people who don't really like footie games. LED Storm/US Gold (YS39, 7)    A futuristic, vertically scrolling racing game that is only average in most areas except (EXCEPT!!) for speed - where it positively stomps on most rivals. Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge/Gremlin (YS61, 90)    Very fast and pretty smooth driving game, with interesting (but slower) two-player option. Manchester United/Krisalis (YS55, 74)    Fast but simple footie sim combined with well-presented management - nice if that's your bag. Midnight Resistance/Ocean (YS56, 92)    Colourful, varied, well paced and tricky shoot-'em-up (with 'interesting' controls too). Excellent! Moonwalker/US Gold (YS49, 75)    A bit repetitive perhaps, but perfectly playable all the way through with some neat graphical touches. What a pleasant surprise! Myth/System 3 (YS49, 95)    Lovely colourful graphics, neat animation, great puzzles and bags of clever characters make this the best System 3 game yet, and one of the highlights of the year. NARC/Ocean (YS62, 72)    Violent, repetitive and morally dubious shoot-'em-up based on popular arcade game. A hit (sadly). Navy Moves/Dinamic (YS42, 81)    A corkendous follow up to Army Moves, for those who don't mind investing six squillion years in getting past level one (i.e. it's hard). Navy Seals/Ocean (YS62, 86)    Half unspectacular runaround, half snazzy multilevel shoot-'em-up. Rather excellent really. New Zealand Story, The/Ocean (YS45, 93)    Totally screwy. Totally wacky. Sickenly cute and rather marvellous. Can I have another go please? Nightbreed/Ocean (YS58, 86)    A rather large, rather clever and rather spooky film conversion. Bravo! Ninja Spirit/Activision (YS53, 71)    What could have been a neat arcade slash-'em-up is practically ruined by confused graphics. Silly. Oriental Games/Firebird (YS53, 73)    A rather old-fashioned fighting game, but well put-together and featuring a variety of unusual sports. Quite fun for a while. Plotting/Ocean (YS60, 84)    Likeable, well-presented but slightly repetitive puzzle game. Very addictive in the short term. Puzznic/Ocean (YS60, 86)    Unspectacular but very addictive little puzzler. If you like that sort of thing (and we do), excellent. Rainbow Islands/Ocean (YS52, 94)    If you hate cute platform games you'll loathe it, but if you like them you'll think it's the best game ever played (or as near as dammit). Renegade III/Imagine (YS41, 79)    The standard beat 'em up formula gets a bizarre fantasy twist - and it works! Robocop II/Ocean (YS60, 93)    Well programmed and well thought-out, great-looking and infinitely playable. Absolutely brill. Go buy! STUN Runner/Domark (YS62, 64)    Tedious, repetitive and not very impressive conversion of an impossible-to-convert coin-op. Not recommended. Silkworm/Virgin (YS43, 90)    Phew! What a spanky little shoot 'em up. Buy it! Sim City/Infogrames (YS56, 93)    The most original, perfectly programmed game of the year. Ignore the graphics - it's a work of total genius! Skate Or Die/Electronic Arts (YS41, 74)    Competent and absorbing new skate sim, but no better than 720° and not as good as Skate Crazy. Sly Spy Secret Agent/Ocean (YS57, 80)    Clever James Bond parody capturing much of the series' feel, but disappointingly disjointed. Snow Strike/Epyx (YS60, 73)    Part flight sim, part shoot-'em-up, it can't really make its mind up. (Quite well put together though). Sonic Boom/Activision (YS54, 52)    A dull shoot-'em-up with no outstanding merits. If you like 'em difficult then fine. If not, steer clear. Space Ace/Gremlin (YS38, 8)    One of the best compilations around, and great value if you lack the real superstar games. Love it to death! Spitting Image/Domark (YS39, 6)    Nicely packaged and well executed beat 'em up which would be a birrova goodie if not for the deadly long loading sequences. Spy Who Loved Me, The/Domark (YS59, 76)    Half good/half bad Bond game. There's quite a lot here though, so it's not bad value. Story So Far Volume II, The/Elite (YS44, 79)    A good compilation and great value. Elite may not have done much for the Speccy lately, but this final bow spells a sad day for Spec-chums. Strider/US Gold (YS47, 90)    Brilliant looking, smooth playing platform and ladders leap 'em up with a neat main character. There could be more in it, but what's there is excellently done. Strider II/US Gold (YS61, 87)    Bigger, better, more colourful sequel to Strider, though perhaps a bit too similar to the original to be a Megagame. Supercars/Gremlin (YS61, 88)    Fairly simple but perfectly executed Super Sprint clone - which scrolls! Excellent fun! Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles/Mirrorsoft (YS61, 90)    A jolly colourful platform-and-ladders romp - simple but fast and very professionally put together. Times Of Lore/Origin (YS43, 91)    Gigantic fantasy role playing extravaganza with a neat control system and sound graphics. Brill. Titan/Titus (YS45, 75)    Take a bit of Breakout, a pinch of Arkanoid and a touch of the Battys, add some fairly original twists and serve. A very playable little concoction. Turrican/Rainbow Arts (YS56, 92)    Massive and spectacular shoot-'em-up, though it does lack a bit of character. Still, buy it! Vikings/Challenge (YS52, 71)    Nice to see more professionally-produced wargames, but whether this'll convert anyone to the cause is another matter. WEC Le Mans/Ocean (YS39, 9) World Beaters Giants/US Gold (YS38, 7)    A collection of big name arcade conversions, nearly all of which are competent but disappointing. World Cup Year '90 Compilation/Empire (YS55, 79)    No great shakes graphically but a strong compilation nevertheless, with three top league games. X-Out/Rainbow Arts (YS51, 84)    Smooth, large and well-implemented shoot-'em-up, with a great shop sequence and just enough originality to get by. Excellent. Letters (YS42) Letters (YS43) Letters (YS44) Letters (YS45) Letters (YS46) Letters (YS47) Letters (YS48) Rage Hard! (YS55)     It's been a good year and a half since we last took a peek into the wonderful world of Micronet, and it's come an awful long way since then. MATT BIELBY tries to get his mind around it all. SAM Special 1 - SAM: Is It The Speccy Of The Nineties!? (YS51)     OR If You Think The Spectrum Is 'Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow', Why Not Try A SAM Toupe? SAM Special 2 - The SAM Coupe Fax Box (YS51) SAM Special 3 - Bruce Gordon Interview (YS51) SAM Special 4 - Soft on SAM? (YS51) SAM Special 5 - FLASH !! (Oo-er!) (YS51)     Well, you've seen the pictures all over the shop, so you'll already know that the SAM Coupe comes with its own art package. But what's it like? Well read on, cloth-head, and you might find out... The Big YS Sell-Off (YS52)     Your Sinclair gets sold to Future Publishing - here's how... YS Complete Guide To Beat-'em-ups, The (YS53) YS Complete Guide To Shoot-'em-ups Part I, The (YS55) YS Complete Guide To Shoot-'em-ups Part II, The (YS56)