Zzap
1st March 1990Combat School
After winning a Silver Medal for their efforts in Hypersports, two of Konami's top athletes have entered Combat School for the test of their lives. Joystick waggling is raised to a fine art here, married to some superb, multi-loaded events.
The first test is the assault course. The screen is split in two for simultaneous two-player action. Joystick waggling gets your man running along, but to clear the walls you need to press fire at just the right moment to execute a graceful leap. There's also some monkey bars to climb along just before the finish line.
Beat the time limit and you're sent to the firing range. 35 of the pop up targets must be hit to get through to the next level. Once again two players can take part at the same time.
It's back to bashing the joystick for the third event: the gruelling vertically scrolling iron man round. Your man is propelled by frantic joystick waggling, but there's plenty of objects to be avoided and jumped over.
Back at the firing range the targets are robot tanks which move very fast. If you beat it you have an arm-wrestle with either player two (if he's still in the game) or your instructor. Simple joystick waggling determines the winner. But win or lose, you go on to the final target range, with more pop-up targets to hit. Watch out though: some of the targets are booby-trapped - freezing your cursor if you hit them. The final event is a hand-to-hand battle with your instructor. If you beat him, then there's a secret mission where all your new skills will be much needed.
Miss qualifying on any of the events by a small margin and you get a chance to continue if you can do a set number of joystick-waggling chin-ups. So needless to say a sturdy joystick is needed for this great game. But there's so much more to the game than mindless waggling that it should appeal to absolutely anyone with a C64. A great conversion, and an excellent game. This is an essential purchase.