[{"TitleName":"Devastating Blow","Publisher":"Beyond Belief","Author":"Jim Scott","YearOfRelease":"1991","ZxDbId":"0001374","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 96, Feb 1992","Price":"£2.2","ReleaseDate":"1992-01-16","Editor":"Lucy Hickman","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Coming to you live from CRASH Towers are:\r\n\r\nEditor: Lucy 'Hot Lips' Hickman\r\nDeputy Editor: Nick 'Get Yer Kit Off' Roberts\r\nStaff Writer: Mark 'Gas Mark 6' Caswell\r\nProduction Editor: Warren 'Technicolour Neck' Lapworth\r\nAdventures: Ian 'Gerald Kaufman' Osborne\r\nArt & Design: Charlie 'De-cherried' Chubb, Mark 'Newt' Kendrick\r\nSystems Manager: Ian 'Modest Bast' Chubb\r\nScreenshots: Michael 'Anorexic' Parkinson\r\nPublisher: Roger 'Milton' Kean\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Sheila 'Omni-present' Jarvis\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: George 'Cassanova' Keenan\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jo '0898' Lewis\r\nProduction: Jackie 'Memo' Morris\r\nReprographics: Rob 'I've got a brand new shower' Millichamp\r\nManaging Director: Jonathan 'Liquid Lunch' Rignall\r\nCirculation Manager: David 'Birdie-dick' Wren\r\nAccounts: Sheila 'Morticia' Adams\r\nSubscriptions: David 'Bradford and Bingley' Bingle(y)\r\n\r\nTypesetting Europress Impact, using Apple Macintosh II computers, running Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator 3.0. Printing BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd. Distribution COMAG, [redacted]\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 write to us at the address below). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either EUROPRESS IMPACT or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions. No 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, hardware or software - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material 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 by the printed word rate. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nEuropress Impact Ltd, CRASH [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis month's cover: Never Ending Story II. Cover design by Oliver Frey. Powertape inlay by Mark Kendrick."},"MainText":"Beyond Belief\r\n£2.99\r\n\r\nDespite the suggestive title, Devastating Blow is a boxing game, the first release on the new Beyond Belief label. Starting as the eighth-ranked fighter in the world, you batter yow way to the top by flooring every bum who stands in your way.\r\n\r\nTo beat your opponent throw combinations of punches - when his energy rating approaches zero, he'll fall over. He'll do the same to you so keep that guard up and don't show too much chin. If you're knocked down, waggle furiously and you might stagger to your feet to fight again (and be knocked down again, probably).\r\n\r\nBetween bouts you blast sway at a punch beg to improve your power, and if you get bored with knocking over computer-controlled opponents, you can beat up a friend (sounds like fun - Ed).\r\n\r\nThe graphics aren't going to set the world alight, but they're as good you'd dare expect, while animation's silky smooth and crystal clear. The sweat flying from a fighter's head as he's hit helps create atmosphere.\r\n\r\nOn the minus side, Devastating Blow offers little in the way of tactics - just stand toe-to-toe and hit the other fighter. The lack of a joystick option doesn't help matters.\r\n\r\nFor all it's faults, Devastating Blow is a playable game that could easily go ten rounds with some of the full priced beat-'em-up games currently on the market. With far too many big software houses releasing games that are mere parodies of their 16-bit counterparts, it's great to see a smaller label using the Speccy for it's own sake. Not up to world title standard, but certainty in the ratings.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"61","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Ian Osborne","Score":"72","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Oi! This is no time for doing press ups."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"74%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"73%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"75%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"72%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 70, Oct 1991","Price":"£2.2","ReleaseDate":"1991-09-05","Editor":"Andy Ide","TotalPages":69,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Andy Ide\r\nNew Art Editor: Andy Ounsted\r\nGames Editor: James Leach\r\nStaff Writer: Linda Barker\r\nArt Assistant: Maryanne Booth\r\nAdvertising Manager: Cheryl Beasley\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nPublisher: Jane Richardson\r\nPromotions Manager: Michele Harris\r\nGroup Publisher: Greg Ingham\r\nCirculation Director: Sue Hartley\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair, Future Publishing [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nDistribution: MMC [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Matt Groening\r\nISSN 0269 6983\r\nABC Jan-June 1991 65,444\r\n\r\nYS comes to you from the same incredibly talented people who knock out Commodore Format, ST Format, Amiga Format, NCE, Amstrad Action, 8000 Plus, PC Answers, PC Plus, Sega Power, Amiga Power, Amiga Shopper, Classic CD, Needlecraft, Mountain Biking UK and (introducing this month's newies) PC Format and Public Domain."},"MainText":"Beyond Belief\r\n£2.99 cass\r\nReviewer: Jonathan Davies\r\n\r\nFor some reason people often mistake me for a mild mannered, easy-going 'yes' man. And I don't use the word 'mistake' lightly, as the admissions list of the Bristol Royal Infirmary will testify. So when a new boxing game was slid under the door of the shed I was its natural recipient.\r\n\r\nIf you didn't recognise the name in between the game's title and its price, that's because Beyond Belief is a new set-up and this is its first game. Hurrah! When so many so-called 'big' companies are tending to overlook the speccy in its old age, it's nice to see a new company getting its priorities right from day one. And the games not bad either.\r\n\r\nIt's about as standard a boxing as it's possible to get, but as there haven't been too many boxing games on the Spectrum in recent years I'd better go over the basics. Your boxer stands on the left, facing the other one (controlled either by the computer or a chum) who stands on the right. By pressing the right combination of keys you can get him to walk backwards and forwards and do various punches. As you lay into your opponent hisstrength goes down until, eventually, he'll fall over. He might manage to get up again (by hitting the left and right keys), in which case he gets a bit more energy and another chance. If not, you win the fight and move up a rank. (You start off in eighth position, and have to become first in the world, you see) Between every couple of bouts you get a chance to beef up your power rating by hitting a punch bag.\r\n\r\nAlthough initially it seems that all you have to do to win a fight is press all the keys as quickly as possible and hope for the best, you'll eventually work out combinations of moves which work for you. But the best thing is the way the boxing matches actually look like boxing matches with teeth flying all over the place. In fact the whole feel of the game, while distinctly Spectrummy, is just right and nothing like as repetitive as these things so often can be. So, um, it's really rather good then.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"An ordinary but slick boxing game that's surprisingly good fun to play.","Page":"56,57","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jonathan Davies","Score":"70","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Nice to see players with such a firm grasp of the English language, isn't it, Spec-chums?"},{"Text":"Oof! Out for the count! (Get up, you lazy bounder, I want to bash you up a bit more.)"},{"Text":"Right, who's the joker who swopped the ring for a swimming pool?"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"61%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"66%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"70%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 122, Apr 1992","Price":"£2.1","ReleaseDate":"1992-03-18","Editor":"Alan Dykes","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Alan 'Jaws' Dykes\r\nDesign: Yvette 'Wish I was in Africa' Nicholls\r\nSU Crew: Garth 'Ancient Beard' Sumpter, Pete 'Tartar Sauce' Gerrard, Phillip 'Killer Whale' Fisch, Graham 'I was upstairs, honest' Mason\r\nAd Manager: Tina 'I'm not a Goth!' Zanelli\r\nAd Production: Matthew 'What film?' Walker\r\nMarketing Man.: Mark 'Speech, speech' Swallow\r\nMarketing Women: Sarah 'Pink room' Ewing, Sarah 'Where is it Al?' Hilliard\r\nPublisher: Graham 'Dad' Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry 'Good morning' Pratt\r\n\r\n(c)1992 EMAP IMAGES\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nColour by Proprint\r\nPrinted by Kingfisher\r\nTypeset by Altyp Inc\r\n\r\nAbsolutely no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system or used to pad out wet or undersized footwear without the express permission of the Publisher. On a lighter note I really hope that Garth can be found again. I hate to think of the poor chap wandering aimlessly aroudnd the world, searching for Spectrum user groups. I hope Puff is feeling much better too! Incidentally, anyone writing to Suck Up For Software had better be nice to Al from now on 'cos otherwise they won't get any software."},"MainText":"Label: Beyond Belief\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nPrice: £3.99 Tape\r\nReviewer: Toni Naqvi\r\n\r\nBlam, bash, smack, crunch, splaattt! Duck down dudes 'cos Mighty Midget is about to try and knock your block off in a face-breaking, teeth-flying, blood-splurting, boxing bash 'em up that makes Mike Tyson look like a (jailed) pussycat.\r\n\r\nDevastating Blow is a quite good, if inordinately simple boxing simulation, with bright colours, clear graphics, and variety of bone-crunching sound effects. Game set up is easy enough. After typing in a really scary 'power' name like Big Al'...(eh!), a status sheet appears telling you where you stand as far as strength and stamina are concerned and also (unfortunately), how many unlucky chappies your current opponent hos slaughtered so far.\r\n\r\nNow it's into the ring! Movement is very basic and punching is either low or high but you can punch quickly and there is a special super punch available too which efficiently levels opponents. Hitting someone is actually quite satisfying thanks to the aforementioned sound and the little drops of sweat which bounce off the boxer on the receiving end.\r\n\r\nA bout consists of 13 rounds, each lasting about a minute and a half. The idea is to knock the stuffing out of each other until either boxer's health percentage, displayed at the bottom of the screen, reaches about fifteen. As soon as you or your opponent go this low the ref gives a quick 10 second count and it's all over. In between bouts, you get a chance to practice moves on a punch bag and as matches are won your World Championship standing improves. (After starting at eighth,) This is the whole object of the game, though I don't know how high Devastating Blow will actually go in the software ranks.","ReviewerComments":["I must say I thought Devastating Blow was a load of old cobblers when I first saw it, but I've warmed to it while kicking Toni's butt in two player mode. Not too high in the lastability stakes though.\r\nGarth Sumpter"],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"40","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Toni Naqvi","Score":"59","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Garth Sumpter","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Both boxers have strength levels of eighty percent and have a long way to go yet!"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"59%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]