SCANNER
video - ames reviews
PLAYSTATION
RoHcage (Psygnosls) £39.99 Remember Wacky Races 1’ The krds' programme \‘zhere assorted anrrnal characters and humans spent each eprsode rac rng one another7 The l."l‘.(‘l' was selcrom the character ‘wrth the fastest mac nrne but the one who l‘ad the best drrty trrcks Ro/lcage rs sr'nrlar C ombrnrng the competrtron of a rac rng gan‘.e \.‘.:th the t":gger—happy carnage of a shoot 'em up, rt sees srx different buggres rrp through futurrstrc landscapes wfi'rrie srrntrltaneously tr‘yrng to knock thanks out of each other"s parr‘t obs Handrly, the btrggres (an scream .rp ‘».'.alls and can even glrde alor‘g cerfrngs In the lrkely case of turnrng your rhotor over then rt rust keeps on gorng, a brt lrke one of those bunnres wrth a Duracell battery But faster and \.'.rth guns
C noose your power-ups rsely and you unril be vrctorrous Cock up and you'll be cnokrng on exhaust Rac rng skrlls are useful for Rollcage but not as esental as a sound understandrng of your weaponry Blastrng the scenery and "ac rng under the lallrng debrts can create a glorrous prle-up behrnd you, '.‘,‘l‘tl(,‘ (ar'elul deployment of the trme unarb mrssrre ‘.'.rli allow you to snatch pole posrtron from a more deservrng .eader It's not easy to " at Rol/cage but seldom rs frustrator‘ so enroyable lT
Rally Cross 2
(SCEE) Etbc
De‘.re'oper's 989 Studios nave gor‘e all out to ( reate a cross country rally serrrtrlator that’s as realrstrc as possrble '.'.rth Rally Cross There are no guns, pox'.'er-t.ps, secret tunne s or other in ks azaréable to help you cross the ‘rr‘. shrvtg lrne ‘rrst the buck stops ‘.'.'rth your abrlrty to handle your mac hrne Hagcr‘g saad that, rt's posszble to frne tur‘e your vehrc le's set up \ltlot.ld-be grease monkeys (an trnker r.'.’rth the gearbox, tyres and brakes Even a respray .s possrble, although rt ‘v.'-.'on't stop you berng apped by the other competrtors
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Rally Cross 2 rs a brt of a purrst’s dream trc ket and the wonder of the game rs rn the accuracy of the detarl. The vehrcles all handle drfferently dependrng on the terrarn that they are crossrng. water slows them down, snow rs treacheroust slrppy, whrle even good old asphalt encourages the sort of hrgh speeds that lead to sprlls when that unexpected corner appears It you have a dual shock controller then the game really does come alrve as your 4X4 thuds over Jumps and slews around harrprns
It takes a \‘xhrle to become profrc'rent at Rally Cross 2 but patrence rs healthrly repard If the btrg really brtes then there rs an optron to burld your own courses rJT‘
Granstream Saga (SCEE) £34.99 In many unays, thrs role-playrng adventure rs lrke stepprng back rn trme to the dark days when ZX Spectrums ruled the roost Informatron and plot are conveyed by a seemrngly endless serres of dralogue boxes and, rn an age when gamers get therr krc ks at hrgh speed, the whole thrng seems more than a lrttle antrguated
The hackneyed plot about a guest to save a threatened :‘xorld wrll be t'amrlrar to anyone who has ever scanned the trtles of the sword and sorcery sectron :n a book shop The puzzle solvrng seems ludrcrously srmple and remarkably banal The frrst task for the hero rs to make a cup of tea for hrs verbose mentor
On the brrght srde, a naggrng currosrty may keep the determrned playrng rust to see what nappens next. Alternatrvely, you could do somethrng more excrtrng, lrke prckrng gunk out of your toenarls rJTr
Live Wire! (scr) £29.99
Do you remember those old 50s 8- movres \.'.vhere mad sc rentrsts would create abomrnatrons of nature by graftrng two sec-nnrngly rncompatrble creatures together7 Well, belreve rt or not, Lrve ‘/'./rrel rs a brt lrke that. Granted, there !sn't a srngle goat-
BFST l'SFiCF. (3C). 1"”l "ILJ
I Rolléoge: fast and furious
N64 South Park (Acclaim) £4999 .t .,
The kids are alright: South Park
There can be few games which arrive in the wake of as much hype as South Park. What with the TV show, the screen saver, the stuffed toys, the keyrings, the mugs and all the other tat, nobody could be blamed for crying out ’Oh my God! They overkilled Kenny!’ With this in mind, it would be easy and tempting to slate Acclaim’s game as a cheap bit of opportunism and a cynical whip-stroke to a very dead nag. However, South Park is a very good game which should not be damned just because we‘re over-familiar
with the concept.
South Park has been created by Iguana Entertainment, makers of the superlative Turok titles. Like those games, South Park is a first-person shoot 'em up. Players choose to be Kyle, Stan, Cartman or Kenny and make their way through six ’episodes', dealing with the strange events set in motion by the approach of a comet. At first you only have to kill berserk turkeys (easily accomplished with piss-covered snowballs) but later episodes see the town beseiged by a range of nasties including killer robots and evil
clones of Big Gay Al.
The action in South Park is as smooth as the well-worn path between Mrs Cartman's bedroom and the local crack den, but suffers slightly from repetition. There are simply too many enemies all of the same kind within each level. What saves this game is the vast array of comical weaponry from noxious Terence and Philip dolls to fiendish cow launchers which capture the anarchic and childish spirit of the show. Plus, the graphics and voices are spot on, although it’s very strange to see a resolutely 20 television programme turned into 30 for the game.
Because this is N64, you can also enjoy four-player action which allows the kids or various other characters familiar from the show to engage each other in split-screen combat. Definitely a mode with post-pub written all
over it.
South Park could so easily have been a load of chocolate salty balls, so it’s a relief and a delight to find it’s great. Sweet. (Peter Ross)
walrus hybrrd, but rt does enjoy a srmrlar degree of genre splrcrng
Thrs rs a puzzle game, but doesn't really play lrke one Whrle most pu/Xle games Tet/rs, Devrl [)rc e etc are defrned by therr lrmrted envrronrnents and actron, lrve Wrrel has an enormous amount of stuff gorng on at once
You race one of four (har'ac ters around vast psycheclelrc 3l) \rrre—t'rame landscapes, leaVrng a coloured rrrarker rn your wake, Colour all four srdes of a square and clarm rt for your own To become the ultrrnate wrnner, you must cover the marorrty ot' the surface area Wrth your desrgnated colour
Thrngs are complrcated and grven depth by the many power ups lyrng arouncl These, together txrth the rnc redrble speed of play and a tram c house soundtrack, make lrve 'r/‘vlre’ a sensory blast whgc'h should certarnry spark your rnterest rPR=
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE: Peter Ross, Jonathan Trev.
STAR RATINGS
Unmrssable
Very good
Worth a shot
Below average You've been warr‘ed