Want to see a crowded loading screen? Then try this compilation's Killer Gorilla - Superior, Acornsoft and Micro Power logos all jostling for position. This is yet another of the excellent Superior re-releases with a 'best of the rest' addition of our lovable simian and Elite's Commando.
Through perhaps Micro Power's ape is only here to allow Superior to dust down its own Killer Gorilla 2 from the vaults? Anyway, there is a sense of overkill with the two reasonably similar games - guide your ape to the top of a set of ladders and platforms, rescue the girl, avoid the meanies, etc. Both are showing their age rather, but the sequel by Christopher Hyde is markedly superior (ouch!) in every respect - graphics, gameplay and so on.
Still, worth checking out if you've no sense of Beeb game history - these used to be state-of-the-art!
Commando is a reasonably competent conversion of the arcade smash, though suffering in retrospect from Tynesoft's clone Saigon. However, it is still compulsive and the desire to try to get your soldier up the screen, past the enemy soldiers, throwing grenades and firing from the hip all the time is as strong as ever. Dreadful sprite collision, though!
The final offering comes as a bit of a surprise - Superior's Palace Of Magic. Surely it can't be such a poor long term seller that it's condemned to the bargain bin already? I loved the game when it first came out - it's a sort of unofficial sequel to Citadel, another old favourite - and is well worth investigating if you're looking for a complex, well-crafted and visually appealing arcade adventure. Lots to explore, lots of puzzles, some great comic touches - a cracker.
Overall the compilation doesn't really hang together but it's a great way of picking up four interesting games. Check it out.
1st December 1988
