Your Sinclair


Kamikaze
By Codemasters
Spectrum 48K/128K/+2/+3

 
Published in Your Sinclair #66

Kamikaze

I don't know who it was who said "This is just one of those games which is slickly programmed, but at the end of the day regrettably just too simple and repetitive." but whoever it was should receive a hearty round of congratulations (and perhaps even a pay rise) because that's exactly what's wrong with Kamikaze. It's a simple horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up with you in a plane attempting to complete (and I quote, again) "An incredible do-or-die mission to rescue top-level military hostages from a fortified enemy base". This is done by taking off in your (rather puny) plane, flying horizontally along and killing the enemies. Rather than attacking huge waves of baddies, here you have to sort of pick them off one at a time. If you don't kill one then the chances are it'll probably kill you. There are lots of buildings which you fly over, and so, to avoid crashing, most of the gameplay takes place in the top quarter of the screen.

Luckily there is a point to all this - the game is divided up into missions. Simply (although that's probably not quite the right word) all you have to do is to find the plane carrying the dynamite, shoot it and catch the explosive before it hits the ground. Then dive down into the enemy HO (a castle on the first level for some reason), and this will explode letting the hostages free. At least, that's what's supposed to happen according to the instructions, but I never got that far even though I played it for ages. It's a bit hard, you see, and in that frustrating sort of way which deters you from wanting to play it for very long.

Rich Pelley

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