Game Footage

Advent Calendar

Operation Wolf Ocean's brand new Taito coin-op conversion, makes it onto the spectrum with a bang! Phil Snout loads up his Uzi machine gun and shouts "Rescue The Hostages!"
    Operation Wolf, if the arcade machine charts are anything to go by, is the world and its mum's fave coin-op this year. Part of the reason for its ultimate success has to be attributed to the flippin' great sub-machine-gun mounted on the front of the cabinet. The other reason besides this obvious (although an enjoyable bit of brratt-a-tat) gimmick, is that there's a brilliant and even challenging arcade game in there, being one of the most frantic shoot 'em ups ever! Okay, p'raps that's a little rash, but it is a brilliant arcade game, and I strongly recommend you leap into the nearest arcade and spend all your money on it!
    In the coin-op, you are a mercenary in the employ of some seedy govemment somewhere, and you're being paid to rescue some sensitive hostages from a distant foreign land. You see the game from the mercenary's point of view, and gun in hand you prepare to blast your way through the six levels of the game so you can reach the airport with your hostages, and your wits, intact. In the Spectrum version, rather than a gun in hand you have a cursor or sight on screen, which you move around the screen shooting at everything in view. Tanks, airplanes, hardnuts with knives, grenades and machine guns. There's lots to do, and more action than most people can handle. Are you up to it, soldier?
    So Ocean's version doesn't have the gun to bolt on to the front of your Speccy... but what it does have is a brilliant game! The graphics, by a very talented young man called Ivan Horn, are frankly stunning, and as true to the original graphics as you can get. It's fast too, courtesy of champ code writer Andrew Deakin, and equal to the arcade in toughness. I've seen the Speccy version and the arcade version side by side, and there isn't much in it, speed and playabilitywise. Okay, so there's a lack of colour in the Speccy version, but we're used to that, right? What colour there is, is nicely employed and appropriate. The music, like all the current crop of Ocean releases, is by keyboard ace Jonathan Dunn and again this is totally faithful to the original music score. Obviously the 128 music is a little better than the 48, but even so, even on the diminutive Speccy the music is lively and exciting, really getting you into the game.
    It's interesting to note that Jon has his own music studio at Ocean Central, and writes the music on the C64 (spit), before porting it down to the 128 and 48K Spectrums. Another interesting fact is that all the Spectrum versions of Ocean games are designed on Atari STs and ported down to the Speccy afterwards. I asked Andrew Deakin why this was. "It's faster developing a games code on the ST, 'cos then you can port it down to the Speccy and all the Speccy's memory is free to play the game. If you use an assembler on the Speccy, you'll have to assemble and run it separately, powering down the machine in between. This way's much quicker, and you can afford to try original new things that you wouldn't ordinarily have time for. Fast, eh?" So how long does It take to do a game like Operation Wolf, Andy? "About three months on this system." Wow! That's a bit quick, I think you'll agree.
    So there you have it, ladles and gents. The finest shoot'em up money can buy. Check out the screens for more info about Operation Wolf. We think you'll like it! I did!
    
Level 1: Communications Setup
There's a lot to clear from the screens in Operation Wolf, and no more so than in the first level. The parachutists will land and run away, only to return later to fill you full of lead, or lob grenades at you. As you can see in this screen, a grenade has just exploded on you, (yowch) at the same time as the big guy at the front shooting you several thousand times, causing the damage pointer to glow red.
    
Level 2: Jungle
Then it's a quick dive into the jungle scenario, where you're pursued by still more heavily armed bully boys. You have the added hazard of a bunch of pure military thugs who're on the river in a speedboat, nipping past at speed showering bullets in your direction. There are also a few guys running along the river on the other side. You can see your sight quite clearly In the center of the screen.
    
Level 3: Village
Once out of the jungle section you plough headlong into the native village, where you face a similar barrage from still more enemy troops. One of the enemy has successfully lobbed a knife into you at this stage, as you can see at the bottom left hand side of the screen. Falling down the screen is an extra anti-tank bomb icon. Shoot that, and it flys off the top of the screen, and boosts your green bomb ammo.
    
Level 4: Powder Magazine
The helicopters are back in the Powder Magazine section of the game, joined this time by some rather mean armoured cars. You get a tally of how many enemies you've shot or blown up along the side... yes, where it says Enemies! For example on this screen you've shot 80 foot soldiers, and blown up seven helicoptors and seven armoured cars! Unfortunately you haven't allowed any hostages to escape. Maybe you shot 'em in the rush?
    
Level 5: Concentration Camp
The bilg Arab Schwrartzenegger types in the crew cuts and the bullet proof vests have to be hit in the head, as they are obviously impervious to any other shot. So, aim high If you want to get these guys. But go a bit carefully with the old bullets. Y'know it's easy to blast away regardless, but you've only got seven magazines of bullets left, and what you've got left in the gun... 31 last count, which isn't much.
    
Level 6: Airport
And finally, you and the hostages you've protected all the way through the game, get to the airport, where you must all make it to the plane. This is where the quality of Ivan's graphics really shine through, the final section of the game at the Airport, with all the planes and men all crammed into one explosive screen. You can see a grenade coming towards you here, which is lobbed from the centre distance and grows in size untill It explodes on the bridge of your nose.

Arcade version screenshot...

Click here to view all 8 pics

Ratings given by other magazines

9/10      9/10    Crash Review ---

Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database

YS Cross-references
		Operation Wolf/Ocean	YS36	9
		Operation Wolf (in The Biz)	YS51	90
		Operation Wolf (in The YS Complete Guide To Shoot-'em-ups Part II)	YS56	94
		Operation Wolf/Hit Squad	YS63	87
		Operation Wolf (in The YS Official Top 100 Part 2)	YS71	No.58
Some info from Sinclair Infoseek+SPOT*ON