Commodore Format


Sky High Stuntman

Publisher: Codemasters
Machine: Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Commodore Format #13

Sky High Stuntman (Codemasters)

Dear oh dear. More appalling rubbish. The title is misleading to say the least. What it promises is a rather quirky and typically Codemasters simulator of some obscure pastime. In reality it's a hugely tedious, and badly programmed, shoot-'em-up.

The only connection it has with the film world of stuntmen is that instead of losing lives, you waste 'takes'. But even this is done badly. Waste a 'take' and you have to wait all of sixty seconds while pathetic little messages like 'another take gone' and 'action' are displayed at the foot of the screen.

The first scene involves you, a small aircraft and a flight over enemy territory. The screen scrolls vertically downwards and, as you fly over lakes and trees, various assailants appear. These include other planes, boats, tanks and gun emplacements, all of which fire back at you. The ridiculous thing is, you can also crash into all of them.

Sky High Stuntman

That's not so bad if the thing you hit is another aircraft but how on earth is a plane supposed to collide with a dinghy? Bah, humbug. Level two is even worse. Again it scrolls vertically downwards but this time you control a hot-air balloon... give me strength!

Joystick movements control the on-screen crosshair but the balloon also drifts slowly in the general direction of the crosshair. This would have made an interesting departure from the normal shoot-'em-up scenario if you were pitted against other, equally uncontrollable, balloons. Unfortunately you come up against much the same firepower as you did in level one, so it's nigh on impossible to avoid death.

At this point, your favourite reviewer screamed loudly, burnt the game cassette and uttered a series of words that caused most of the CF crew to faint in shock. Save yourself similar trouble, buy something else.

Frame Rate

A bit of a silly way to do a shoot-'em-up and it's not even a very good one. A bit of a box office flop, I think.