[{"TitleName":"Fists of Fury","Publisher":"Virgin Games Ltd","Author":"","YearOfRelease":"1991","ZxDbId":"0011704","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 89, Jun 1991","Price":"£2.99","ReleaseDate":"1991-05-23","Editor":"Richard Eddy","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Richard Eddy\r\nSub Editor: Warren Lapworth\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Nick Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nArt Editor: Mark Kendrick\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction and Circulation Director: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSystems Operator: Paul (Charlie) Chubb\r\nReprographics: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Robb Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Judith Bamford\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: Christine Moore\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jackie Morris (Supervisor), Joanne Lewis\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Caroline Edwards [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting Apple Macintosh Computers using Quark Express and Bitstream Fonts.\r\n\r\nSystems Manager: Ian Chubb\r\n\r\nColour origination Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted].\r\n\r\nDistributor COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nYearly subscription rates: UK £17.20 Europe £24.00, Air Mail overseas £37. US/Canada subscriptions and back issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly subscription rates US$47.00, Canada CAN$57.00 Back Issues US$5.20, Canada CAN$6.20 (inclusive of postage). \r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available; If something untoward happens we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop us a line). No person who is related, no matter how remotely, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material on 35mm transparencies is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Copy published in CRASH will be edited as seen fit and payment will be calculated according to the current printed word rate. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1991 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover design and illustration by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Virgin Games\r\n£14.99 (cassette only)\r\n\r\nHarldy surprising, Fists Of Fury is one for beat-'em-up addicts (violent lot). The games included are Shinobi, The Ninja Warriors, Double Dragon II and Dynamite Dux.\r\n\r\nMy personal favourite of the bunch has to be Dynamite Dux. The cute graphics used to represent the pair of dynamic ducks and enemies, coupled with the strange weapons to trash them with, makes gameplay real fun. You're armed (literally) with a normal punch but by holding down the fire button you can increase your power to give a mega-blow. Weapons like fire throwers, water cannons and bombs give an interesting result when picked up. Flippin' great!\r\n\r\nNinja action ahoy in Shinobi. You're searching for a bunch of kidnapped kids and there are loads of vicious thugs to be disposed of using your feet, fists and shuriken stars. Shinobi is taken from the Sega arcade machine and, thankfully, hasn't lost any of its addictive qualities in the conversion.\r\n\r\nAll those who were addicted to the original Double Dragon will just love Double Dragon II - The Revenge. You can play either Billy or Jimmy in their quest to avenge the death of their chum Marian. Like every other game in this pack, it's a scrolling trash-everything-in-sight game with a high level of playability.\r\n\r\nThe Ninja Warriors has you beating once more. This time you have to control one of the warriors and your only objective is to stop the evil master Greek, Bangler, in his tracks. Sadly, it's the least playable in the pack.\r\n\r\nFists Of Fury - Edition Two is great for beat-'em-uppers. Gamers who want variety will soon get fed up as each game plays more or less the same.\r\n\r\nShinobi: 17/25\r\nDouble Dragon II: 20/25\r\nDynamite Dux: 23/25\r\nThe Ninja Warriors: 16/25","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"31","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"76","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"76%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[{"Header":"Shinobi","Score":"17/20","Text":"Shinobi"},{"Header":"Double Dragon II","Score":"20/20","Text":"Double Dragon II: The Revenge"},{"Header":"Dynamite Dux","Score":"23/20","Text":"Dynamite Dux"},{"Header":"The Ninja Warriors","Score":"16/20","Text":"The Ninja Warriors"}]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 65, May 1991","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1991-04-11","Editor":"Andy Ide","TotalPages":84,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Andy Ide\r\nArt Editor: Sal Meddings\r\nGames Editor: James Leach\r\nStaff Writer: Linda Barker\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Jon North, Rich Pelley, John Pillar, Adam Waring, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Jane Richardson\r\nPublishing Assistant: Michele Harris\r\nCirculation Director: Sue Hartley\r\nGroup Publisher: Greg Ingham\r\nManaging Director: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Manager: Ian Seager\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nMail Order: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\nPrinters: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistributors: MMC [redacted]\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair is published by Future Publishing Ltd [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1991. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission."},"MainText":"Virgin\r\n£14.99 cass\r\nReviewer: Jon Pillar\r\n\r\nNinjas, eh? They blimming well get everywhere! And not least into compilation boxes calling themselves Fists Of Fury and featuring 4 chestnut beat-'em-ups like Shinobi and Double Dragon 2. So let's strap on our shurikens and first say hello to...\r\n\r\nDYNAMITE DUX\r\n\r\nYou play a boxing duck and bash cute meanie menials like puppies and moles in order to rescue your kidnapped sweetheart. Along the horizontally-scrolling way you get to grab extra weapons (including a water cannon and guided missiles) but watch out for the big boss baddies! Not to mention the overdetailed backgrounds and jerky scrolling, which help to kill off the fun (and point) of the original. It's less of a conversion, more a disappointing imitation - a sort of Lazarus And Dingwall to the arcade's Police Squad. (Eh? Ed)\r\n'91 Verdict: 59°\r\n\r\nSHINOBI\r\n\r\nA Sega shuriken-'em up, this challenges you to free a load of baby ninjas (as if there weren't enough around already) from the clutches of a notorious villain and part-time sneeze called Bwah Foo. Face the legions of Oriental minions hurling boomerangs, shurikens and sometimes even themselves at you, and battle through to pick off the end-of-level bosses. Add colourful 4-way scrolling and sprites that are more poorly animated than a Saturday morning cartoon and you might think that Shinobi's a bit of a recipe for blandness. It is however jolly addictive and playable. There's quite a funky little smart bomb that pops up once a level, the long levels mean you're getting your multiload's worth, and there's always a little surprise hiding round the corner (or on the wall, or in the water, or behind that crate...). Tastier than my Nan's sponge cakes and the prize of the pack.\r\n'91 Verdict: 85°\r\n\r\nTHE NINJA WARRIORS\r\n\r\nA horizontally-scrolling multiload which not only boasts all the beat-'em-up genre's standard features but also has quite a nice line in rather average gameplay. The nicely-shaded graphics, 2-player option and choice of weapons (poke people with your sword and throw a few ubiquitous shurikens around) contribute to solid, enjoyable play, but what could have been \"oh wow!\" is just \"oh well\".\r\n'91 Verdict: 67°\r\n\r\nDOUBLE DRAGON 2\r\n\r\nGrab a pal and repeat more or less exactly the same kind of stuff you did in the first Double Dragon. Use a wide range of moves in conjunction with a load of stolen weapons and climb up onto the scenery to drop down on top of the opposition. All this is depicted in very attractive graphics but, sadly, these suffer from fatal clutter-clash. Also the gameplay's pretty similar throughout, there's a very irritating multiload and the most radically different 48:/28 versions I've seen since Road Blasters. It's only a short time before words like 'that' 'not, 'that' and 'good'start coming to mind.\r\n'91 Rating: 65°\r\n\r\nSo, all told, it's a surprisingly weak compilation from Virgin (especially after Edition One).","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"One goodie, 2 humdrums and a duffer. The Fury would come after buying it!","Page":"76,77","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jon Pillar","Score":"60","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"A couple of Castro lookalikes throw bananas at Mr Ninja Warrior."},{"Text":"Here's old Shinny again trying to hide behind a stack of boxes."},{"Text":"Saturday night in sunny Swindon courtesy of Dub Drag 2."},{"Text":"Shinobi bumbs into a couple of baddies on his way to the shops."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"60%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[{"Header":"Dynamite Dux","Score":"59%","Text":"Dynamite Dux"},{"Header":"Shinobi","Score":"85%","Text":"Shinobi"},{"Header":"The Ninja Warriors","Score":"67%","Text":"The Ninja Warriors"},{"Header":"Double Dragon 2","Score":"65%","Text":"Double Dragon II: The Revenge"}]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 113, Jul 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-06-18","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Garth 'Shell Suit' Sumpter\r\nDesign Editor: Andrea 'Old Levis' Walker\r\nStaff Writers: Steve 'Biker Jacket' Keen\r\nSU Crew: Alan 'Donkey Jacket' Dykes, Tony 'Black Knight' Naqvi, Chris 'Parka' Jenkins, John 'Sandles' Cook, Pete 'Floppy Hat' Gerrard, Phillip 'Leather Boots' Fisch, Graham 'Lab Coat' Mason\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Jerry 'C&A' Hall\r\nAd Production: Jo 'Hotpants' Gleissner\r\nMarketing Dept: Sarah 'Cowboy Boots' Ewing, Sarah 'Neglige' Hillard\r\nPublisher: Graham 'Oxfam' Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry 'Sleeveless Shirt' Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1991 EMAP IMAGES\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nDISTRIBUTION: BBC FRONTLINE\r\nSU SUBSCRIPTIONS: [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by Garthtype.\r\nColour work by Proprint.\r\n\r\nReproduction of any part of this magazine without the consent of Andrea will result in a whine so large as to render you impotent for the rest of your life so don t use any part of this magazine as a contraceptive (except perhaps the staples which if you stuck into your soul mate during a romantic moment ought to do the trick of turning them off you for life!). It's always difficult life - especially if you're a teenager. I mean, did you know that teenagers worry more about problems than any other part of society? To it is end we'll be producing Andre's Problem Spot next month, so if you've got any teenage problems then just drop her a line at Andrea's Problem Spot, SU, [redacted]. See you next month dudes."},"MainText":"Label: Virgin\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nPrice: £14.99 Tape, £19.99 Disk\r\nReviewer: Steve Keen\r\n\r\nTake four good games, strip them of their original packaging, re-collate the cover art work and put them all in one box with an accompanying manual and you just might have a mega product. Well that's exactly what Virgin have done with this martial arts bash. And what a bash it is!\r\n\r\nShinobi, The Ninja Warriors, Dynamite Dux and Double Dragon 2. There can be anyone out their who hasn't seen these games before so don't expect any surprises. Various scenarios and thugs to beat up, a lethal dose of weapons to be had and lots of levels to contented with. When you get fed up of one game just slap in another. The games themselves rate from the good to the drop a load in your pants variety! The playability of Ninja Warriors is particularly rewarding (you can spring twenty feet into the air spiralling in a menagerie of patterns that would put a high board diver to shame, and still be able to land foot perfect and deliver a deft blow straight into the happy sacks!)\r\n\r\nShinobi's shuriken spewing antics are well at home in the compilation, but Dynamite Dux is a very obvious odd one out. Resembling a famous aquatic TV presenter, you punch and shoot your way through streets to rescue your kidnapped duckling (yuk!) whilst being chased by dogless heads and false teeth throwing crocks! It may sound quackers but it's sickeningly cute.\r\n\r\nHowever it's Double Dragon 2 that's the real star. Best enjoyed bashing with a friend at your side. The graphics are excellent and the game play, although limited in it's nature, is significantly advanced by the ability to use different weapons left lying about. Possibly the best compilation this reviewer's seen to date. Every game's hot so buy the lot!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Ah-so kimo shanti. Waso mantarnae yeshi yoshi seyanara sarb hack hack! Confisuous he say \"Many good games make lasting action-packed compilation\"","Page":"25","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Gold","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Keen","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Shinobi - great graphics and true beat 'em up action rescuing midgets."},{"Text":"What's up duck? One of the strangest cutey games - Dynamite Dux."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"FIST FAX\r\n\r\nJudo was initially developed by a Japanese doctor in 1882.\r\n\r\nThe highest grade in karate is 10th dan and the handful of people who have achieved this status are in Japan.\r\n\r\nThe most famous martial artist to have lived was Bruce Lee. Being of slight build he was still able to send a man three times his own weight flying with a single punch."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"92%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"90%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]