Save The World!

Within the next seven years, a world war will take place. A war so great that even the Swiss will get involved this time. A war so terrible the Italians have already surrendered. One leader will emerge from this war to rule the world.

It is your task to stop this leader and save the world.

Playing Spitting Image

1. First Bits
After the game has loaded there is a brief introduction before it gets down to the business of presenting the player with the humungous task of saving the world. Press Fire if you want to skip the introduction.

2. Map Bits
Next comes the map screen which is central to the quest of destroying the credibility of the world leader. Using the joystick, select the leader you would like to rule even less than all the other leaders you wouldn't like to lead either. This will be the leader you are about to beat up. Next choose the leader who you would like to do the beating up. This will be the leader you will control.

From there you will be flown instantly to the home territory of the target leader. To comply with the new 1992 EEC regulations, there will be no duty free goods during the instant flight.

3. Ouch Bits
To defeat your opponent you must win a 'best of five' series of fights. If you lose then you are a humiliating failure: The kid down the street did better than you and he's only been playing computer games a week and probably his mum could even beat your score and get to write her name above yours which would be really embarrassing if your friend saw it and you'd have to keep making excuses if they came round to your house and wanted to play the game because you'd have to say something like "Oh, it's broken" and they'd say "it doesn't look very broken to me" and switch it on and see your friend's mum's name above yours and you'd have to pretend it was a joke but they wouldn't believe you and they'd go round telling everyone what a lousy score you got and your parents would be so ashamed they'd pretend to be dead just to get you put in an orphanage where they wouldn't have to see you. And if you take our advice, then you'd throw the game away and pretend you'd never played it.

4. Incredible Bits
If however you win the series then the target leader will have lost all credibility. You will then be sped back to the map screen where a skull will be sitting in place of the leader you have just beaten. From there you must once again pick two more leaders, and providing you keep winning then the show goes on! You may be wondering what happens when you are left with one leader. Well, we are not going to tell you. On some cassette versions of the game, you may be asked to load world leaders before the fight starts. Follow the on-screen prompts.

Two Player Game

If you wish to have a bash with a friend then move the pointer on the map screen to the '2' icon and press Fire. You can then choose which leaders each will use. The fight works as the usual best of five - however you cannot save the world.

Fighting

This is the most confusing bit. Ronnie got completely lost here, and even Maggie took five seconds to understand it.

Joystick Moves

Up - Jump, Up/Left - Jump and move back, Up/Right - Jump and move back, Left - Back off, Right - Move forward, Down - Duck

Fire Button pressed continuously

Left - Special Move, Right - Hit At Body, Up - Hit At Head, Down - Hit At Feet

All this assumes your chosen leader is facing to the left. If he/she is facing to the right, the moves are mirrored so, "Hit at Head" stays the same, but "Hit at Body" goes to the left. Got it? Told you it would be confusing, but it's not that difficult to master.

Special Moves

Each leader has their own special move. No clues here - it's up to you to find out.

Game Controls

The Spectrum version can be played with the keyboard instead of the joystick. Just follow the instructions on the screen.

Sidekick

Sometimes it gets all too much fighting out there on their own, so each leader has a sidekick to help out. During any fight, press Space Bar and see who appears. They can come back time after time...

Loading

LOAD"" (ENTER)

Spectrum 128K/+2: Use "Tape Lader" option from start-up menu, then start tape.

Spectrum +3: Use "Loader" option from start-up menu, ensure disk drive is empty, then start tape.