Game Review – Night Racer (1988)

My next review sees me racing across Europe in the dead of night... And why not?

Month 3 in Review

Well it’s actually month 3 and a bit really, but I thought after a quiet June it would be better to baseline each month of collecting as an actual month.

The majority of games reviewed this month have been rather mediocre, with nothing exceptionally good or bad for the most part. Consequently there are just a couple of new entries in my top ten and the bottom five is unchanged from last month.

Nothing else of note really happened during June either but hopefully now holidays and events are out of the way for a while, things may get a bit more interesting…

Top Ten

 1. Ghostbusters (Ricochet, 1988)

 2. Street Surfer (Entertainment USA, 1986)

 3. Kikstart (Mastertronic, 1985)

 4. Rock n' Bolt (Ricochet, 1988)

 5. Bomb Fusion (Mastertronic, 1989)

 6. Toy Bizarre (Ricochet, 1989)  **NEW ENTRY**

 7. Rescue on Fractalus (Mastertronic Plus, 1989)

 8. Gemini Wing (Mastertronic Plus, 1989)

 9. Kane (Mastertronic, 1985)

10. Tetris (Mastertronic Plus, 1989)  **NEW ENTRY**

Bottom Five (In reverse order, worst at the bottom)

5. Speed Zone (Mastertronic, 1989)

4. Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (Ricochet, 1987)

3. Double Dragon (Mastertronic Plus, 1990)

2. FA Cup Football (Ricochet, 1988)

1. Sport of Kings (M.A.D., 1987)

One thing I am noticing is that a large proportion of the games in both ‘charts’ are re-releases of full price games, so from next month (once I’ve got more reviews under my belt) I’m going to do separate charts for original and re-released titles.

Game Review – Skyjet (1985)

Not a bad game this, but the instructions were woefully inadequate. Luckily I found an old ZZAP review that explained what to do!

Game Review – Angle Ball (1987)

Ever wanted to play a computer simulation of pool on a hexagonal table? If so then this is definitely the game for you...

Game Review – Tetris (1989)

What can you say about the classic Russian puzzle game that hasn’t already been said? Based on my review, not a lot!

Collection Update – Filling the Gaps

Yet more games have arrived for the collection, gradually building towards the 200 mark...

It’s now a case of waiting patiently for the rarer titles whilst still filling the odd gaps with the missing common titles. All the games in this update came from Ebay, with the cost ranging from £1.90 to £2.95 per game. Inevitably now I’m having to be more choosy with what I bid on, the average cost per game is increasing a little.

First up we have three ‘grid style’ Mastertronic offerings - Mind Control and Sub Hunt are both relatively hard to come by, while Spectipede is a lot more common.

Next there are four games in later Mastertronic packaging, three of which are not too hard to find. They are Bosconian '87, The Curse of Sherwood and Molecule Man. The last one is less frequently seen – The Quest for the Golden Eggcup.

Finally we have a variety of titles, some of which I would class as uncommon based on my experience thus far - Impossible Mission (Ricochet), Rad Ramp Racer (Mastertronic Plus), plus Vectorball and Lazer Wheel (both M.A.D.)

So that’s another 11 games crossed off the list, which leaves just a handful of common ones before the inevitable long search for the really rare stuff.

Total games: 191

Average cost: £1.10

Game Review – Invade-A-Load (1987)

Bringing my first quarter of game reviews to an end with a quick look at Richard Aplin’s loader game...