Stomp tanks and barbecue soldiers

Producer: Gremlin Graphics
Out of Pocket: £7.99 cass, £12.99 disk
Author: Dave Woods

The humans are aware of your presence! They send out their armed forces to intercept you. Tanks? - you stomp on them. Helicopters and jets? - you swat them from the skies. Soldiers? - frazzle them with your fiery breath and eat them for breakfast. Oh, what a rotten swine you are!

But what are you? Nothing less than a nightmare Godzilla escaped from a Japanese science fiction movie in this stompingly good-fun bash-'em-up from Gremlin. A bunch of meddling explorers have nicked some of your eggs without asking, and my, my, are you angry. A quick rampage through a variety of Japanese locations is needed to recover them and teach those meddling humans a lesson they won't forget.

Unfortunately, these revolting humans have guns which do a lot of damage to your delicate hide. A hit meter registers the amount of times the enemy manages to shoot you but, to regain strength, try eating a few of your attackers - serves 'em right anyway.

Don't just take it out on the humans, though - kick the heck out of their buildings as well (whoops, sorry, was that your house I just sat on?). Apart from your outsize food chompers and claws, barbecue breath also comes as standard equipment, though it's important to keep a reptilian eye on the meter at the screen's top-right to see whether you have a full charge. If empty, you'll need a refill fast.

When the stolen eggs are recovered, finding a handy dandy nuclear waste dump is just the ticket. Not only are these dumps very, very tasty, but bury the eggs in them and they hatch into baby monsters to carry on the good work should you fail (okay, it means extra lives). And you're not alone. Fellow monsters are also keen to join in the human bashing. To complete your mission you have to defeat three of them in combat.

The most amazing thing about T-Wrecks is the amount of colour used without much attribute clash. The massive green reptile smashes her way through levels of tanks and helicopters with great style - she's well-drawn and the animation's not bad considering her large size. Even more astounding is the way she breathes fire, burning buildings to a frazzle.

The 128K soundtrack contains some catchy little tunes and the effects are just as good. The little soldiers squeak in pain when they're eaten or jumped on - and why not? - while the dinosaur makes a great stomping sound as she walks. This technical excellence is matched by the gameplay; it's great fun smashing the buildings and breathing fire on the tanks and cars. The various levels get progressively harder and should provide plenty of challenge for even the best of game players. Climbing and smashing buildings is reminiscent of Rampage, but the scrolling landscape and more varied enemies give T-Wrecks extra lastability. It deserves to be a gigantic hit!

PHIL [90%]

THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: large and surprisingly well animated
Sound: monster-sized chomping and mangling effects

T-Wrecks is g-r-r-rreat stomping, frazzling, crushing fun! it may remind you of Rampage, but it's graphically impressive, with a very mean and moody looking monster ready to mangle and be generally offensive. I loved every minute of the computerised carnage. Long-term interest may be stunted by the repetitive rip, mangle, and maim content, but there's no denying that it should have all Godzilla fans cheering on the monster, and booing the (?) baddies.
MARK [80%]

T-Wrecks's strong point is its graphics. The size of the main sprite is astounding and all the other graphics in the game are of a high standard. The atmospheric sound effects when you walk and smash things all add up to a fun game. Get poking for the Christmas Special, lads!
NICK [72%]

Gremlin Graphics
£7.99 cass/£12.99 disk
128K only
Reviewer: Duncan MacDonald

Collecting eggs from bird's nests is a rather naughty thing to do, and if you're caught you can face a hefty fine or even a stretch in the 'nick'. However, there's no law against collecting dinosaur eggs, so the only problem you could face is an irate mummy or daddysaurus - and as we all know; they all popped their claws many millenia ago, so there's nowt to worry about. Nowt, that is, unless you happen to be a team of Japanese explorers who have high-tailed it back to the Land of the Rising Sun with a cache of hot Tyrannosaurus 'oeufs'. Guess who's in pursuit? That's right, not all dinosaurs are extinct at all, and this one, controlled by you, is hell bent on revenge!

The Muncher is a side on viewed, right to left scroller with quite a bit of colour (and a little bit of clash). The game begins with your monster muncher pounding his way up a Japanese beach with a thump, thump, thump of feet and a glare of destructive fever in his eyes (or indeed her eyes - this game is non-sexist, cos although the tyrannosaurus is in the buff there are no wibbly bits to give any clue as to its sexual identity). Very shortly the city is in view, and automatic pilot gives way to joystick control as you begin your quest.

The idea of the game is that you have to search for the stolen eggs, which have by this time been scattered around various cities (levels) throughout Japan. Having found them, they should be deposited in nuclear waste dumps (also scattered about) which serve as incubation chambers. Hatching these eggs is a vital part of the game, as they are transformed into extra lives (you start with only one) which, believe me, you will need. The eventual aim of the game is to reach the harbour where you will be able to sail safety off into the sunset.

En route, however, mass destruction is the name of the game. Large buildings and giant skyscrapers are just crying out to be leapt, scaled (the screen scrolls down at this point) and quite simply demolished. There are loads of different joystick moves for punching, kicking and lashing your tail and you can even shoot fireballs from your mouth. (S'funny. T Rex's never did that in any dinosaur books I read).

Sounds easy you say? Well, it would be if the entire Japanese armed forces weren't out to stop you. Little (and I mean little) men on the ground fire their guns at you, while helicopters whoosh overhead and drop bombs. You can leap up and eat the choppers, bend down and eat the men or simply stomp on them. Each time you get hit you lose a bit of life-force - bullets nibble away at it while direct bomb hits take out great chunks. The animation on the whole is a mite jerky, but it's not surprising really considering the size of the main sprite (you, you clot), and the sound is good as well (well, it is 128K). Not brilliant mind you, just good. There is but one gripe, however, and that's the control response from the stick and keys - it's slow. You have been warned.

Syrupy control response asid, I have to admit that I really enjoyed playing The Muncher - there's something incredibly satisfying about razing entire cities to the ground and squashing people underfoot. Mind you, it probably says more about me than it does about the game. What a thoroughly unpleasant person I must be. Blimey.

Label: Gremlin
Author: Beam Software
Price: £8.99
Memory: 128K ONLY
Joystick: Sinclair/Kempston
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

Berriliant! This isn't just one of my favourite Gremlin Games for ages, it's one of the best Spectrum games I've played for ages. T.Wrecks combines spectacular gigantic graphics with some quite astoundingly violent action in the best eat-'em-up this side of Rampage.

For what has to be the umpteenth time ever (well, the second) you get to play a Godzilla-like Tyrannosaurus Rex in a desperate bid to destroy, punch, tail-whip, eat and burn his/her way through all of the major cities of the world. The seaside, Nintendo Village (are the really allowed to use that?) and many more.

Destroying cities, however, is not a task to be sniffed at. I mean, you can't expect to just walk into the middle of a densely populated area and start pulling down any nearby buildings without a little hassle from residents, passing traffic and of course, the army. Running around on the pavements (or should that be 'sidewalks'? This game has a distinctly American flavour to it) are lots of little minions, all desperately trying to avoid your gigantic feet and save their homes at the same time. Cars and buses zoom up and down the busy highways and you'll find there's nothing more fun than bending over and smashing up a busload of people for NO REASON AT ALL!!!! All good family entertainment. Still, you are not without your problems. Tanks roll around underfoot continually bombard you with shell (until you jump on them that is), helicopters zoom about the skies, dropping bullets and bombs, all hazardous to your health. The whirlybirds can be despatched with quite easily, though, by simply jumping up and eating them. Yum yum.

Unlike Rampage, you have more than one way to smash up a joint. You have your regular option of climbing up the side of a building and punching out the windows. You have your even more devastating breath. No, not a bad case of halitosis, but a case of traditional dragonlike fire-breathing. Finally, as an extra bonus, you have your amazingly devastatingly destructive super weapon. Your tail. Just a quick flick on most buildings is enough to send them tumbling down.

Just check out the screenshots on this page, and you'll quickly spot the most outstanding feature of the game - the graphics. I don't think I going too far when I say they are among some of the best ever seen on the Spectrum.

Huge multi-storey buildings that span several screens in height, tiny little people that go 'splat' when you jump on them. Vehicles that crumble into piles of useless junk with one sweep of a fist, and lots more tiny, if bloody, details make this game a delight to watch, as well as to play.

The only thing that tops the graphics, though, is the animation of the central character. It's well over half the screen in height and depicted in two glorious shades of green, there isn't an inch of his huge scaly body that isn't animated when he walks. All the moves are smoothly and beautifully depicted - just watch him leap up onto a building...

Of course, while you're doing all this damage, you're getting a lot done to you, and this is registered as a damage bar, which gradually drops as you take more hits, until you die, King Kong-like - a giant green heap on the floor. You can boost your replenished energy by eating pedestrians or the occasional parachutist, don't eat the cars though as that has a very nasty effect on your health.

Sound, it must be said, is nothing special, though, just boings when you jump, things when a bomb is dropped, and bangs whenever you destroy something. The dinosaur stomp effect isn't too bad though...

Colour has been used to very good effect, in much the same way as Karnov i.e. putting a border around everything, though the border isn't really so obvious on this. There is very little noticeable colour clash, and this all adds to the look and feel of the game and brings the Speccy ever closer to true coin-op quality.

If you fancy a good beat-'em up of gigantic proportions, and you have a 128K machine (sorry, the size of the game means that there won't be any 48K version), then I can wholeheartedly recommend T-Wrecks. It's the one your Spectrum's been waiting for.

NOTE: HANG ON A SEC - THE GAME IS DUE IN A MONTH OR SO.