C&VG


Skyhawk
By Bug Byte
BBC/Electron

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #66

Skyhawk

Skyhawk is a plain and simple shoot-'em-up, with the emphasis on plain, and simple. Bug-Byte has dispensed with all this namby-pamby plot stuff - who needs a storyline, anyway? All you need is a ship, and raiders to shoot at. Don't you?

In fact, Skyhawk is just plain boring. It looks promising to start with. You have to take on ammo and fuel, then get in the air in time to avoid the first appear on your radar screen.

But it's so slow. If you're using the keyboard, the controls are very sluggish, particularly when you want to turn the ship. I never did work out how to refuel - when it happened, it happened by accident!

And although the raiders move fast, you don't. Even at top speed, you can't catch them once they've passed you. And there are so few of them, you can go for ages without a sniff of an enemy. In fact, I spent most of my time messing about attempting to refuel.

The graphics are boring, too - endlessly scrolling green land and blue sky. Bug-Byte can do better than this.