[{"TitleName":"Flak","Publisher":"U.S. Gold Ltd","Author":"Christopher Smith, F. David Thorpe","YearOfRelease":"1985","ZxDbId":"0001789","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Spectrum Issue 16, Jul 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-06-20","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":66,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cox (Why me? Ed)\r\nArt Editor: Phoebe Good Evans\r\nDeputy Editor: Peter Not So Shaw\r\nProduction Editor: Loopy-Lou Cook\r\nArt Assistant: Martin Dixon of Dock Green\r\nEditorial Consultant: Andrew Pennell\r\nSoftware Consultant: Gavin The Mad Monk\r\nContributors: Stephen Adams, Dave Nicholls, Roger Willis, Ross Holman, Mike Leaman, Tony Samuels, Chris Somerville, Steve Malone, Iolo Davidson, Craig Rawstron\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David 'The Hound' Baskerville\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nArt Director: Jimmy Mc Egerton\r\nManaging Editor: Roger Munford\r\nGroup Art Director: Perry Scope\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Chris Talbot\r\nPublisher: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England. Telephone (all departments): [redacted]\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Spectrum ©1985 Felden productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Spectrum is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"FLAK\r\nFunsoft\r\n£7.95\r\n\r\nDave: Right from the start the signs aren't at all promising. There on the inlay card is a screen shot from the Commie 64 version. When you've loaded up you can see why they decided against printing a Speccy shot. There you are, a badly drawn sprite with an attribute problem flickering across a charmless landscape made up of character squares. Now that's not really a big enough inducement to put on the cover to persuade me to part with the readies.\r\n\r\nThe game's really just a rip-off of the arcade classic Xevious that offers a trip out in an 'advanced AGX hypersonic fighter' - that's the flickering sprite. Occasionally another sprite flickers up to you and that usually triggers off a dull looking cyan explosion. The scrcen scrolls more slowly than a C5 at top speed and your hypersonic wotsit flies at such a snail's pace that it's impossible to dodge the barrage of missiles blasted at you. Consequently, each game lasts about 10 seconds and can only be stretched out should you really want to, by using the one obvious bug - keep your finger on the fire button at take-off and you're invincible for a few seconds.\r\n\r\nAll in all. one that should've been drowned at birth.","ReviewerComments":["How could they do this to one of my fave arcade games? The 'awe-inspiring' scenery only inspired me to turn the Speccy off.\r\nRoss Holman\r\n1/5 MISS","The player may hope to 'take over the universe' but this game won't.\r\nRoger Willis\r\n1.5/5 MISS"],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"42","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Dave Nicholls","Score":"0","ScoreSuffix":"/5 MISS"},{"Name":"Ross Holman","Score":"1","ScoreSuffix":"/5 MISS"},{"Name":"Roger Willis","Score":"1.5","ScoreSuffix":"/5 MISS"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]