Spectrum 2.0

Oh dear…Having spent vast amounts of coinage on its arcade cousin, I had high hopes for the speccy version when it was announced. After all the original didn’t rely on brilliant graphics so it should be an easy conversion? Wrong! Basically, you’re a plane that shoots its way through waves of enemy planes over a scrolling landscape. There’s bonus weaponry from wiping out certain waves and you can do loop-the loops if you get into trouble. It has two problems. The sound which was an integral part of the original is rubbish. Ok, the speccy was hardly known for its sounds but then the original was hardly a nightmare to reproduce. Instead we get no proper tunes and vague farty noises for bullets. But the main problem is speed. Both you and your opponents travel so slowly that they are both easy to hit and at times impossible to avoid. Now even shoot-em-ups produced years before on the spectrum had managed a fast scrolling game and ironically even the bad speccy conversion of the sequel 1943 manages it, but this is a strictly plodding affair. The graphics are average, a bit colourless and the collision detection is unforgiving so no weaving between planes here. Its ok, but it you knew the original you’ll be disappointed, and if you didn’t there’s better, faster shoot-em-ups around on the spectrum