Amstrad Action


Operation Thunderbolt

Author: Simon Forrester
Publisher: Ocean
Machine: Amstrad CPC464+/GX4000

 
Published in Amstrad Action #98

Operation Thunderbolt

I'll just copy an Op Wolf review! You may find this quote from the publicity material for The Lazyman's Guide To Software Publishing by Dr K. Ching a little telling:

"Why bother spending time developing new releases? We show you how to take an old game, change the name and graphics and release it as an original (or, if your customers are really stupid, a sequel)."

So, for all of you fortunate enough to have missed the original (which was also nob), here's a rundown of Wolf (and therefore Thunderbolt).

Operation Thunderbolt

A street scrolls side-to-side or towards you. Soldiers, jeeps or helicopters glide (yes, glide - the soldier's legs don't move!) across the screen, letting loose with the lead in your direction. For defence purposes, you have a gun and a few grenades with which to kill the bad guys - assuming you can find the target. You see, your gun sights are represented by a pixel. Yep, I said 'one pixel' To quote:

"Pixel. A compression of a 'picture element'. This is the smallest element of a screen image." - Chambers "Making Sense Of English In Computers"

That's small. Too small. Luckily (in the loosest sense of the word) every time you fire, a little white explosion appears on screen; this explosion is slightly larger, so you can use that to line up shots instead. Unfortunately, white also happens to be the predominant colour in the background.

Each level has a different mission such as 'search enemy bunkers' or 'gather information' but they all translate as 'shoot lots of people', The difficulty in this game is having two things attacking you at once, which is how the programmers justified a two-player option. But in two-player mode you just spend your whole time trying to work out which sight is yours!

If you find pleasure in games like Repetitive Sim 2, then this is a game for you. If, however, you don't enjoy tasks on the intellectual level of cleaning your toenails, steer clear.

Simon Forrester

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