[{"TitleName":"Alien Storm","Publisher":"U.S. Gold Ltd","Author":"Doug Anderson","YearOfRelease":"1991","ZxDbId":"0000155","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 93, Oct 1991","Price":"£2.2","ReleaseDate":"1991-09-15","Editor":"Richard Eddy","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"THIS IS CRASH, THEY ARE:\r\n\r\nEditor: Richard Eddy\r\nAssistant Editor: Luck Hickman\r\nSoftware Co-ordinator: Nick Roberts\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Lloyd Mangram\r\nPublisher: Oliver Frey\r\nArt Editor: Mark Kendrick\r\nAssistant Designer: Paul 'Charlie-Farlie' Chubb\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager (Computer Leisure): Cathy Cosic\r\nSales Executive: George Keenan\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jackie Morris (Supervisor), Joanne Lewis\r\nReprographics: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Robb Hamilton, Tim Morris\r\nManaging Director: Jonathan Rignall\r\nCirculation Director: Nigel Ireland\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Caroline Edwards (Yearly subscription rates: UK mainland £26, Eire and Europe £32. Outside Europe (Airmail) £46 (But see this special offer!). US/Canada subscriptions and back issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly subscription rates US $47.00, Canada $57.00.\r\n\r\nTypesetting Newsfield, using Apple Macintosh II computers, running Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator 3.0, with system support from Maccent [redacted]. Colour origination Scan Studios [redacted]. Printing BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted]. 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 drop us a line at the normal address). 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 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\nNewsfield Ltd, CRASH [redacted]\r\nISSN 0954-8661\r\n©CRASH Ltd 1991. This month's cover: G-Loc. Cover design by Oliver Frey. Powertape inlay design by Richard Eddy."},"MainText":"Help! help! The aliens have landed! 'That's alright!' says Mark Caswell, 'I'll just nip over to the burger café and get some help!' He's obviously, stark, staring bonkers. Oh, well…\r\n\r\nUS Gold\r\n£10.99/£15.99\r\n\r\nLook. I'm not bonkers at all. For many years people have claimed to see strange lights in the sky and to have met little green men. Most thought them mad or senile, but there's a band of serious UFO watchers who've anticipated the invasion plans that are to materialise. They set up the Burger Cafe as a cover with three of their best operatives to watch the skies.\r\n\r\nAnd - behold! - the aliens arrive! So, it's just as well Gordon, Karla and Scooter (the heroic Alien Busters) are ready to thwart the plans of the bug-eyed monsters who want to take over the planet. That's where the game begins.\r\n\r\nThe aliens are carrying out raids on Earth from a huge mothership, hidden from radar by alien technology, and what's more, the aliens are disguising themselves as everyday objects: they appear as potted plants, telephone boxes, dustbins and other unlikely objects.\r\n\r\nTHE GAME ITSELF!\r\n\r\nAlien Storm is a one or two player game and starts with a choice of a character to play. Each carries two guns: a really, reeeeeally huge intimidating jobbie to blow away big targets (that also makes a really great noise), plus a standard gun for small annoying aliens who sidle up and try to bite your leg off.\r\n\r\nAgility is the characters'strong point: they leap and roll, avoiding the bug eyed beasties niftily. Offense tactics (guns aside) include clubbing the aliens over the bonce and blasting them with smart bombs.\r\n\r\nSTYLISH FUN\r\n\r\nThe game has three game-styles which pop up from level-to-level.\r\n\r\nStyle number one is a bit Golden Axe-ish (ie, fight the creepies on the current screen and then move onto another location and do away with a few more). Set on the streets, all is pretty quiet until something wanders along that wouldn't look out of place in the worst anchovy pizza-induced nightmare. Adversaries appear alone, and sometimes in groups, but most are camouflaged as everyday objects and leap out on you as you pass.\r\n\r\nA press of the fire button soon whips you into action, although whether you fire the really huge or the not-so-huge gun is chosen by the computer, as is smashing the living daylights out of the scum with your rifle butt.\r\n\r\nYour energy level rapidly depletes: energy capsules can be collected when certain adversaries bite the dust, but you often die quicker than capsules are collected (ain't that always the way?). Destroy all the aliens on that bit and onwards you progress.\r\n\r\nTHE RUNNING VERY FAST BIT\r\n\r\nA change of gameplay follows: we call it the 'running very fast bit' 'cos that's what it's all about. The screen scrolls horizontally from left to right, and the computer controls the firing of your unfeasably large weapon. All you have to do is move your character up and down the screen to shoot the bug eyed swines. Simple, fun and (in a strange sort of way) quite relaxing.\r\n\r\nA third play variation occurs every couple of levels, and sees our heroes battling it out with the aliens in a shop. The view is through the characters' eyes, and in true Op Wolf style a floating cursor allows you to aim your weapon. Monsters attack you from behind well-stocked shelves: create complete havoc and splatter them across the counters. It's a super section and refreshingly different from the other game styles.\r\n\r\nIT'S ALL RATHER VIOLENT, THEN?\r\n\r\nIndeed it is! The game is amazingly close to its coin-op parent: fast, violent and, most important of all, playable (thank heavens). Aliens certainly come in some weird and wonderful shapes, and are very often amusing in their disguises. As with all games with two player mode, Alien Storm is at its best when a mate joins in: it certainly needs two of you to get past some of the horrors you meet up with.\r\n\r\nIt's a wonderful conversion, spiffy in fact. So, pick up that huge gun (it's sitting there in the corner) and prepare to go wild (I did!).\r\n\r\nMARK 90%","ReviewerComments":["This is one wicked game! it combines the best features from shoot-and beat-'em-ups into one, with different styles of gameplay and some impressive presentation to top it all off. What makes Alien Storm stand out from the crowd is the three different game styles to each mission, which gives the game welcome variety. I've been playing Alien Storm for quite a while now and I reckon I'll be playing it heaps more - it's a brilliant conversion of a highly playable coin-op.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n88%"],"OverallSummary":"A winning and varied coin-op conversion to shoot and beat away boredom.","Page":"56,57","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"90","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"88","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Karla and Gordon on their way to face the bug eyed monsters in Alien Storm."},{"Text":"Oh look! It's the Eurovision Song Contest judging panel. Hah! Your song's a dud, matey and (Right) no alien is going to get that last box of Weetabix!"},{"Text":"Oh no - pizza nightmare!"},{"Text":"The 'running very fast' bit (obviously) has you pegging it along with all the speed of Nick chasing the chip van (ie, very fast!)."},{"Text":"You can't tell head from tail on this creature (then again, maybe it has neither)."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"EEK, IT'S A LOAD OF ALIENS! (NO, IT'S THE PROGRAMMERS)\r\n\r\nThe folks behind Alien Storm are Manchester based Tiertex. The programmers prefer to remain anonymous (shy lot), but they have previously worked on Italy 1990, Dynasty Wars, UN Squadron for US Gold. The team's favourite game section is the 3D shoot-'em-up because 'it's great fun to destroy the backgrounds', although this was by far the trickiest section of the three to program, 'because it's a four-level overlay parallax scroller with sprites needing to walk between all levels' (whatever that means).\r\n\r\nThe game is a simultaneous two-player affair, but it could have been players! However, that would have resulted, due to memory restrictions, in the characters all looking the same (boring, not to say confusing!). Aliens come in 16 different types, and the number of animations ranges from three for the blobby ones to 12 for the tentacled beasts. Ah, who cares? As long as the bloomin' thing's playable - which it is! Hurrah!"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"90%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"88%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"85%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"90%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"89%","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":"US Gold\r\n£10.99 cass\r\nReviewer: Andy Ide\r\n\r\nI wish all these aliens would go away. One minute you think you've got rid of them all, and then you turn your head and a whole new bunch have just teleported into a cornfield from Zebra Gloopglox 90 or wherever. It's just not cricket.\r\n\r\nAnd they're ruddy rude as well - take the blokes in Alien Storm. Some even have the audacity to disguise themselves as dustbins(!) and pounce on you when you're walking by! Of course, you can splat them with your ziagron laser blaster, but they still make a disgusting mess all over your Nikes and leave a pongy smell behind. (Personally, I blame cutbacks in airport immigration staff.) Still, if a job's got to be done it's, er, got to be done, so let's take a closer inspection at the game they're all calling \"Alien Storm actually\" and see what we think.\r\n\r\nHEY, GOOD-LOOKING!\r\n\r\nAnd as coin-op conversions go it's pretty top-notch stuff. This isn't to say that it's particularly playable - just that it's politely faithful to the original. The Sega machine was a bit of a star, but that was due more to fancy sprites and graphics than any outstanding playability, and the Tiertex game is the same.\r\n\r\nThe six levels are split into different bits, but all of them contain a horizontally-flipping walk-along-the-road sequence where you've got to blap loads of uglies and pick up energy pods. You do this by using a sort of backpack firehose thing that sends out lots of deadly electricity (which, along with the name of our heroes - the Alien Busters - is as flagrant a rip-off of the mighty Ghostbusters as I've ever come across). Other sequences include an Op Wolf shooter in a supermarket (more originality), and some really, really fast scrolling along another road, where you've got to, well, kill a few more aliens.\r\n\r\nAnd, as I said, it all looks jolly scrumptious. The sprites are crisp and fluid, and the fast scrolling zips along like lightning. The crosshairs bit comes a cropper - everything's so detailed you can't see what's coming at you, but you get used to it in time.\r\n\r\nWhich means it's a real pity the gameplay's so flat. Despite what I said, killing aliens can be fun (especially when they look like vegetable omelettes and spooky snails like they do here). But when all you've got to do is dodge them on a pavement and then pound away absent-mindedly at the fire button it can get a bit trying. Alien Storm isn't easy - but who wants to play a game that's difficult when there's no skill involved. It's a shame. You kind of wish they'd given the spanky graphics to MERCS instead (which was a good game, but with pretty crap design).","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Two-player shooter with excellent graphics and dull gameplay - much like the coin-op original really.","Page":"54,55","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Andy Ide","Score":"75","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Mmm. Now where've we seen this type of game before? This Op Wolf bit crops up in the second half of Level Two."},{"Text":"Save your energy, mate. There's another bus in five minutes."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"THE CHANGING FACE OF AN ALIEN FROM SPACE\r\n\r\n1. Meet Boris, one of the illegal immigrants you'll bump into on the street. Shoot him once, and nothing much happens. Shoot him again, and lots of spooky weird things start going down...\r\n\r\n2. He loses all his fleshy bits (including his trunk) and turns into a skull, and then quickly turns back into...\r\n\r\n3. This again - but shoot him a couple more times, and he ends up like...\r\n\r\n4. A spooky spider! Eurgh! (A pretty impressive shrink job, I'm sure you'll agree.) But wait, because here comes his piece de resistance...\r\n\r\n5. An energy cannister, for you to pick up and keep, and make you fit and well and healthy again. Hurrah! (So, maybe these alien blokies aren't so bad after all.)"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"72%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"78%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"87%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"75%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 115, Sep 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-08-15","Editor":"Garth Sumpter","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Garth 'Walking Dead' Sumpter\r\nDesign Editor: Andrea 'Young Thang' Walker\r\nDesign: Yvette 'Baby Face' Nicholls\r\nStaff Writers: Steve '60's' Keen, Matt 'Late 20's' Regan\r\nSU Crew: John 'Crumblie' Cook, Pete 'Whipper Snapper' Gerrard, Graham 'Zimmerframe' Mason\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Jerry 'Music' Hall\r\nAd Production: Jo 'Schoolgirl' Gleissner\r\nMarketing Dept: Marc 'Hard to' Swallow\r\nMarketing: Sarah 'Toygirl' Ewing, Sarah 'Newborn' Hillard\r\nPublisher: Graham 'Bathchair' Taylor\r\nManaging Director: Terry 'Off the Shelf' 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 G'n'S type.\r\nColour work by Proprint.\r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be used for hitting people with. It's really violent and Steve gets really upset man! No part of this magazine may be reproduced unless you're really old (over 90!) in which case please go ahead and have as much fun as you can whilst you can. We're all off on our hols this month and so next month we'll be printing all the piccies that we take and letting you know how we got on. If you'd like to have some of your holiday shots included then please send them to Steve's Holiday Snapshot Corner, SU Towers, [redacted]. We can't undertake to return any shots to you unless you enclose a stamped, addressed envelope. See ya next month!"},"MainText":"Label: US Gold\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nPrice: £11.99 Tape, £16.99 Disk\r\nReviewer: Steve Keen\r\n\r\nAfter a white hot preview in the July issue U.S. Gold are at last sorting out the little niggles in this, their latest release. After seeing the test copies the Crew could not wait to get their suckers on the finished product and as predicted in ish. 113 monster mashing has never been so much fun!\r\n\r\nThe beast busting takes place on Earth as the marauding aliens have come down from their orbiting mother ship to colonize our planet after using their own as a toxic waste bin. However the Earthlings still have one hope, the Alien Busters, three self-appointed UFO look-outs who staff an alien combat force based in the local Burger Cafe.\r\n\r\nStructurally the game is good news for Speccy owners as it's format is almost identical to the coin-op. You can choose between the three rebels Gordon, Carlo and Scooter. Each repel the scum suckers in their own special way and all have their own weapons and animation. For instance Scooter, the robot, has a bazooka in his leg and his wrists incorporate a machine gun. Which weapon is used is decided by how close you are to the enemy. Prototype type plasma rifles and neutron bombs come as standard, the bombs are particularly useful as they clear the whole screen, but they must be used with caution as they seriously deplete your energy supply and if this is reduced to zero you'll be using your gun butt or bare hands!\r\n\r\nA life meter monitors your health and extra top-ups are available through out the six levels. Blood thirsty gamesters are well catered for as each of these are separated by stages and are inhabited with hordes of varying slime.\r\n\r\nRanging from giant ant-like creatures to undulating Maryland Cookies the man eaters pursue you through cities, houses, shops and mother ship over arcade beat 'em up levels to Op. Wolf style sections. Some of the blighters even hide out in normal objects such as oil drums and spring out on you as they approach! All this is great fun, frying uglies and watching their tentacles flay around in fright, but the real adrenaline grabber lays in the simultaneous two player option. Although you can only use the same players in 48k mode, all you 128k smug mugs can choose between the three main sprites to maximize the genocide.\r\n\r\nAlien Storm mixes fab animation and graphics with futuristic blast 'em up arcade mayhem and the lack of on screen colour adds to the atmosphere rather than detracting from it. The main sprites are a little \"stiff\" and sound is unfortunately sparse, but there's loads of fun to be found in the program. Just alien bustin' fab!","ReviewerComments":["It's been a long coming and could be a while longer before it's in the shops, but it will be worth the wait. Alien Storm really kicks some ass.\r\nGarth Sumpter","What a blast! My favourite character is Scooter. He'll always be the last bod standing and he'll give any bogey a run for his money.\r\nMatt Regan"],"OverallSummary":"Crisp, clean, sprite definition and animation. The game could have easily appeared cluttered with all that's going on, but justice to a classic coin-op has been done.","Page":"18,19","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Silver","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Keen","Score":"87","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Garth Sumpter","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Matt Regan","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"A particularly nasty blob, or is it a poll tax collector? Either way - shoot to kill!"},{"Text":"Aagh! It's coin-op frenzy. Dig those graphics."},{"Text":"Cookies, cookies everywhere but not a crumb to eat (Sorry Keates man!)"},{"Text":"Down, deeper and down. But not out!"},{"Text":"Jogging down to the papershop for a pint of mild can be dangerous."},{"Text":"These guys are definitely not a barrel full of laughs."},{"Text":"Your local supermarket never looked quite like this."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"When conditions are right in certain flat parts of the world a lightning bolt can be over 20 miles in length!\r\n\r\nThe record rain fall during a storrm in Cilaos in 1952 was 73.62 iinches in 24 hrs. That is nearly four feet deep and equal to 7554 tonnes of rain per acre.\r\n\r\nBeing of infinite size the universe is immense by it's own comparison. The farthest visible object in space by the naked eye is the Great Galaxy in Andromeda about 13,600,000,000,000,000,000 miles away."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"78%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"87%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]