SCANNER
Games and Internet
PLAYSTATION
Kula World (SCEE) £34.99 4: it it t
0 f i. ll Kula World: a teeth-grinding triumph
No, it’s got nothing to‘do With Crispian Mills and his kaftan-shagging band of sonic sorcerers, but Ku/a World is equally likely to leave you wanting to give someone a good kicking.
Imagine, if you will, a large beach ball. Now imagine a geometric, graVity-defying, phy5ics-fisting playing area like something out of an Escher sketch. BaSically, that's what Ku/a World looks like.
Your task is to gUide said beach ball around increaSingly complex playing areas, first seeking out a key and then heading for the exit before the sand in an hourglass runs out. Like all great puzzles, it sounds rubbish but is actually a brilliant, brain-frying game.
This is a cruel world, and things aren't easy for a day-glo beach ball. You can be spiked, melted or dropped from a great height. All this is frustrating, but it's the beat-the—clock aspect of Ku/a World that Wlll make you want to put a Why Don’t You?- style Size Ten through your telly screen. There's nothing worse than getting stuck on some animated ledge as time ticks on. A teeth-grinding triumph. (PR)
92 THE lIST 10—24 Sep 1998
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PLAYSTATION Point Blank
(SCEE) £34.99 or £59.99 with 6- Con 45 a: a is k The down side of light-gun games is that they can represent a sizeable investment. Not only have you got the game to purchase, but, if you want to play it properly, you really have to ditch the handset and buy the G- Congun 45 as well. On the plus side, it's the only video game where you feel you're actually taking some form of exercise — that gun gets pretty heavy after a couple of hours. Buying this game is an investment in buff pecs. Where games like Virtua Cop and Time Crisis went for impressively violent urban-based shoot-outs, Point Blank has opted for more of a circus side-show
feel. Instead of facing down hoodlums, the most fearsome opponent you're likely to meet is a rubber duck or clay pigeon. These guys can’t shoot back, so, to keep you on your toes, there's a strict time limit in which you have to shoot the required amount of targets to progress up a level. Sometimes you are restricted to as little as five seconds. Even Lee Harvey
Oswald had longer than that.
There are a staggering 36 levels split over three skill levels and, although the initial stages wouldn't trouble Stevie Wonder, later on it gets so tough that even
Point Blank: right on target
William Tell would be left in a cold sweat. If you manage to complete that lot, you can either explore the competitive two-player mode or hire your gun skills to the highest bidder.
With a pseudo-ZD adventure option thrown in (the bizarre ‘quest' mode) there's plenty here to keep the most battle-hardened fan of the Michigan Militia busy.
If you've already got a light-gun from a past game
gathering dust somewhere then Point Blank is a must buy. If you haven’t, then isn’t it about time you got trigger-happy. (Paul Owens)
Dead Or Alive (SCEE) £34.99 i
The main selling point of this beat ’em up is the laughably pneumatic breasts of the female characters. That's a shame as, if there's one thing Dead Or Alive isn’t, it's Te/clcen With tits.
The control method of Dead Or Alive doesn't follow Teklcen's two punch buttOns/two kick buttons model. Instead, it's more like Sega's Virtua Fighter games single kick, punc 'n and block buttons. PlayStation veterans should find this a breath of
fresh air.
Another bonus comes with the innovation of the Danger Zone, a ’mined' area outside the main fighting arena Knock your opponent into the Danger Zone and enjoy seeing them blown sky high, even better, hit them again and again as they fall to the ground.
This game is certainly fast, but mindless button-bashing is not the order of the day. The square button allows you to counter-attac k, so second-guessing your opponent can mean the difference between Winning
Dead or Alive: mammary mia!
or losing, thus adding a significant tactical element to an ostensibly frenzied game. (PR)
Treasures Of The Deep (SCEE) £34.99 ‘
We all feel like speaiing a dolphin now and again, but international protection laws being what they are, that's so often no more than a distant dream Thank Neptune, then, for Treasures Of The Deep, a fine shoot 'em up cunnineg disguised as an undersea adventure
You play a treasure hunter working for the Underwater Mercenary Agency, always on the look-out for sunken galleons packed with gold Controliing a nippy yellow submarine, you must expiore ever more hazardous waters in search of increasingly valuable booty from a Spanish sword to rec overing the Holy Grail from Hitler's downed aircraft.
Things aren’t entirely si nple, though Various nasties, including pirates, sharks and hideous serpents, want nothing more than to leave your lifeless corpse at the bottom of Davey Jones' locker
On the plus side, the more treasure you recover, the more you can invest in helpful goodies like nets, torpedoes and super subs Plus, you can earn cash by netting endangered species, lobster pots and the likes Sadly, killing Flipper \‘.'lii result in a hefty fine, but may Just be worth it. ‘.PRl