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After getting thrown into the slammer for his original scam, Mugsy is free again and in search of a fast buck. It's 1919, America is winding itself up for the Depression and the most relevant change noticeable to Mugsy is the introduction of Prohibition. Since alcohol is now illegal, a large black market has sprung up, offering very high profit margins. Being an astute hoodlum, Mugsy decides that this is the racket for him. Everything is set for Mugsy's Revenge.

Those of you familiar with the original Mugsy, (which is on the B side of the cassette) will realise that Mugsy's Revenge follows a very similar format.

Mugsy's aim is to regain control of his empire by taking advantage of the Prohibition situation, and investing the £50,000 that was safely set aside before the cops caught up with him. Conversations with a right hand man supply the information needed, and a list of options available is presented. All the relevant day-to-day decisions faced by a gangster are put before you: how big a bribe should be given to the cops? who would you like rubbed out? and so on. The central decision rests on the number of barrels of liquor to buy and sell shrewd deals at the start provide the capital needed to buy Speakeasies later on in the game.

If things get rather nasty then your top man scarpers, dropping you into an arcade sequence in the middle of a gunbattle. This section has Mugsy running about to the command of left, right, up and down keys. Fire lets loose hot lead from the revolver supplied, and the idea is to eliminate the Feds and avoid shooting the ladyfolk who parade around. Get hit too many times and it's Game Over.

Information is passed to you via a window superimposed over one of several detailed backgrounds. These backgrounds change after a few choices have been made, and every now and again a small animated scene pops into view showing a bit of a scuffle at t Gino's pool hall. After the whole cycle has been run through, a year is deemed to have passed and a synopsis of your progress is resented.

If too many bad decisions are entered or you run out of money the game finishes. If, however, Mugsy manages to keep around for ten years, then Prohibition is lifted and a detailed analysis of Mugsy's progress is supplied.

Control keys: I left, P right, Q diagonally up Z diagonally down, B, N, M, SPACE fire
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: fast and responsive
Use of colour: pretty and well done
Graphics: also very neat
Sound: one tune, very nice it is too
Skill levels: one
Screens: a good few

'Other than the great graphics there's not much to Mugsy's Revenge. I think the game is too much of a copy of Mugsy, and the gamepley is almost the same. Once you begin to play it, after a year or so has passed in the game, you are being asked the same questions - it got on my nerves. The movie clip shows you the year's events, and the animation is great but there are some jerky patches. The arcade game isn't that spectacular, and after a few people have been killed the game goes dead slow and is almost impossible to play.'

'I was expecting a real advance on Mugsy, but I was wrong: it's more of a step backwards. I wasn't compelled to carry on playing after I'd seen a few screens and heard the music once. The arcade screen isn't much fun - it's very easy and gets very dull once you've been through it a few times. There are no sound effects during the game although there is an excellent tune on the pool hall screen. I expect that if you stuck with it for a while, the game would probably become fun, but I hadn't got the patience.'

'Mugsy's Revenge could have been a good follow up to the hit Mugsy but I felt that the game was too repetitive. After a while I got heartily sick of the snide comments that the person running my operations kept churning out - over and over I heard the same jokes. I guess the screens take up a lot of memory, but it would have been better if the game had branched off more to the strategy side of the plot. With the great Mugsy on side B of the tape, the package presents tremendous value for money, but really it's a case of 'nice graphics, shame about the game.'