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| Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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Hunter
Patrol
1985 Mastertronic
Programmed
by Steve Lee
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| Most
text of the present article comes from the review published
in the seventh issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(November 1985). |
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HUNTER
PATROL
Mastertronic,
£1.99 cass, joystick only
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Mastertronic have gone back in time to set the scene
for this, their latest game. You take the seat of an
old World War II prop aeroplane supplied with the mission
of flying deep into enemy territory, seeking a designated
target and strafing it. The game itself is very similar
to the old arcade classic Buck Rogers (a 3D flying
shoot em up), featuring the same sort of graphics and
craft control.
At
the bottom, of the screen there is a bar indicating
your distance from the target. This doesn't go down,
as you would expect, as you near your destination, but
it decreases every time you shoot a ground installation
(ranging from radar towers to houses). These appear
as you zoom across the terrain and can be destroyed
by simply diving to ground level and firing at them.
The installations are all harmless and, unless you crash
into them, they pose no threat to your plane.
As
you can imagine, the enemy aren't too impressed by all
this whizzing about the place, blowing up their buildings.
So, to put a stop to your antics, they send up planes
that fly around the top half of the screen. These don't
actually fire at you but it's fairly easy to crash into
one, should you stray into its path. To make matters
worse, flak is fired from over the horizon and detonates
randomly with large explosions, one touch of which will
destroy your plane.
If
you manage to destroy the required amount of installations,
then you can have a crack at the main target -- a building
that you have to fly over repeatedly, strafing it many
times. On successfully destroying it, you get a score
bonus, an extra life and are allowed to advance on to
the next level. Should you fail, then you are forced
to start all over again.
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.
Mastertronic have set themselves
a bit of a problem recently, by releasing such very
cool games at their very low budget prices. Naturally
you start to expect the best, but Hunter
Patrol
is certainly a bit of a slip. Nevertheless, bearing
in mind its price, this
cheap and reasonably cheerful shoot em up can't be called
bad value; it's just that you shouldn't expect too much;
but if you want an inexpensive filler between major
hours of zapping or adventuring, then this game is probably
a modestly worthwhile investment.
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Presentation 59%
Nothing
special.
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With
the quality of Mastertronic's titles improving
greatly with each new release, I was disappointed
with this rather poor game, especially as it was
written by Steve Lee of Falcon
Patrol II
fame. The graphics are just above average, the
3D effect with the bands of colour working well,
but unfortunately the same can't be said of the
planes. The piece of music on the title screen,
although not being one of Rob Hubbard's better
pieces, is very good. The sound effects are weak
and sparse though.
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Graphics
65%
Nice 3D ground effect, but little
else.
Sound
87%
Very good military tune, but gets
monotonous.
Hookability
67%
Easy to get into but seen it all
before.
Lastability
51%
Mildly addictive.
Value
For Money 60%
The two quid's good, but the game's
still only average.
Overall
51%
Reasonable but dated shoot em up.
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Htmlized by Dimitris
Kiminas (24 Aug 2003)
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"Games of the Week!"
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