1st August 1991
Stuntmen are silly sausages, aren't they, viewers? They leap out of huge burning buildings or hang onto the wing of an airplane and constantly deny they're anything like that awful colt whatsisface from The Fall Guy. Here's Mark Caswell who gets the scenes rolling with a rousing cry of "Action!"
Sky High Stuntman
Sky High Stuntman is the second game in Code Masters' Stunt Man series and follows our old chum Super Stuntman around the set of his latest blockbuster film. The game takes place over five levels and has you piloting a range of airborne craft, starting with a helicopter.
The director shouts 'Action!' and the film starts rolling, or rather the scenery begins its vertical scroll. Against you are a range of helicopters, airplanes and ground-based guns, all letting rip with both barrels - and these guys don 't fire blanks!
You're allowed up to five takes (lives) to complete a level, but if you lose them all it's end of game (and Super Stuntman's career). Luckily, you don't fire blanks either, so dodge your opponents' fire and give 'em a taste of their own medicine. Points are scored for each enemy destroyed, a large bonus awarded it you kill the big mid-level enemy.
Outta Sight
Level two sees you up in a hot air balloon - here you have no control over which direction your craft moves (so pray you don't hit anything!). Instead, control is transferred to a large cursor with which you can aim bombs at the nasty attackers (but don't aim the cursor at yourself or you'll pop the balloon!).
If you survive that, levels three and four are set in a jet fighter and a monoplane respectively. To find out the have to play the game yourself, because I'm still trying to complete level four (!).
The graphics are okay, nothing to shout about but they're colourful and do the job. Gameplay is pretty easy and you should have the game completed in about, oooh, ten goes. I reckon a couple more games and I'll have level four licked and level five nearly cracked. Sky High Stuntman is one of those games that's fun to play but its simple content lets it down.
MARK … 58%
Nick ... 45%
'From the spills of being the original Super Stuntman racing about and risking life and limb in a car, we now take to the air. Funny thing is, Sky High Stuntman looks more or less the same. The only difference is that the action is up in the clouds. The object is simply to blow away all the nasty-looking things that come on screen and fire at you. Simplistic fun? I think not, it's all too repetitive, really.'
Other Spectrum 48K/128K Game Reviews By Mark Caswell
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