Cue a tinkling ragtime piano, lots of hoodlums with tommy guns and a guy wandering around saying 'you dirty rat!' and 'okay blue eyes, it's the big sleep for you' because here's Mark Caswell and he's off for a day's gangster busting!

Zeppelin Games
£2.99

There's never an Untouchable around when you need one, is there? So, I guess, it's up to you as Lieutenant Sharkey to bring the bad guys to book.

One guy is top of your 'most wanted' list, Rubbers Malone (no fnarr-type Jokes, please!), who gained his nickname through his habit of wiping out his enemies. With trusty tommy gun and a limited supply of Molotov cocktails to hand, you hit the streets (they retaliate but you neatly duck - ho ho).

There are six levels to play through and all scroll at a slow-lab pace from left to right Gameplay's in Op Wolf tradition, you aiming your cross-hairs and letting rip with your weapon (madam).

GANGSTER PRANKSTER

Be assured that your opposition, a vicious bunch of gangsters, will be on you like a ton of bricks in about three nanoseconds. Most walk on the screen from either side but others fire at you from can or snipe from open windows in background buildings.

To the right of the playing screen is the status panel that shows (from the top) the amount of ammo left, your supply of Molotov cocktails (real booze was prohibited) and your energy level.

As you battle your way through the hail of Pb (that's scientific for lead, thickies) and dodge the odd flying bottle, you come across some very handy pick-ups. First Aid boxes replenish energy, ammo clips replenish your empty gun, machine guns provide much needed automatic fire and bottles restock your cocktail cabinet

REALLY SAYING SOMETHING

At the end of each level is an informer who points you in the right direction for the next battle. However, whatever (ever, ever) you do, don't shoot him (not even accidently) - if you do it's right back to the start of the current level. Annoying, eh?.

I love these blast-the-scum-away type games, and Sharkey's Moll is no exception. It really gets the old adrenalin going when the enemy troops pop up and take pot shots at you and, being a complete and utter psycho, I enjoy replying in kind.

The graphics are monochrome but very detailed, and an atmospheric tune tinkles away on the title screen. My only niggle is that the cursor is a bit on the sluggish side, thus quick movements are hard to achieve. This is annoying because if there are gangsters on either aide of the screen most of your energy rapidly disappears. Despite this, Sharkey's Moll is well worth adding to your shopping list, especially if you're addicted to blasters!

MARK [84%]

Anyone miss Operation Wolf when it was released? Well, if you did, all you need do is spend £2.99 on Sharkey's Moll because it's almost identical. The only real difference is the graphics - Sharkey's set in the 1920's with lots of violin cases, trendy cars and dirty rats! Every sprite and background graphic has been excellently drawn with great detail - it's quite stunning. Any shoot-'em-up fan will have a field day with plenty of baddies to be popped and a few good guys to be avoided, too. The only moan is that we've seen it all before - are all the original ideas for games on summer holiday? if a good, cheap blaster is what you're after, Sharkey's Moll is the one for you; if you own Op Wolf, it's hardly worth bothering about.
NICK [62%]

Zeppelin
£2.99 cass
Reviewer: Linda Barker

Hey ho! Another day, another Op-Wolf clone. Yep, this one takes me back - all the way back to last month and LA Police Department actually.

Aargh! I want something different. I want to load a game up that makes me gurgle with delight! I want to be knocked backwards by a game's sheer cleverness and originality! What I don't want is another aim-the-cursor shoot-'em-up. But beggars can't be choosers, so here I am with Sharkey's Moll. Hey ho (I know I've said it before but, heck, that's how I feel!).

As you've probably gathered, Sharkey's Moll is a monochrome, horizontally-scrolling, blast-'em-to-smithreens kind of a game. There are six levels which take you through downtown Chicago, the home of bathtub gin, speakeasies and gatling guns. Unsurprisingly, the city's running alive with gangsters and illegal booze - even the most innocent looking building could hide a private dub complete with leggy dancers, jazz bands and quite a few chaps with violin cases. Obviously it needs a good spring clean and, as sure as eggs is eggs, you're the man with the feather duster (so to speak).

You're Lt Sharkey, the government's main man in Chicago, and you're just in time for a little rendezvous with the city's underworld boss, the enigmatically named Rubbers Malone. To get to his warehouse hideaway you've got to race through six (extremely similar) levels, shooting gangsters and avoiding informers, innocents and molotov cocktails. There are the usual pick-ups littered about the place, including machine guns which give you very odd spurts of fire - one moment you're blasting away quite happily and the next your cursor's all over the place leaving behind a trail of bullet holes and carnage. It's quite good actually.

What's there in Sharkey's Moll is quite playable. It's just that there's not much to it, and it's certainly nothing new or exciting. It's also one of those really annoying games in which you suddenly die for no apparent reason. You didn't run out of ammo or molotovs and it certainly looked like there was a bit of blood left pumping round the old arteries. Hey ho!

Label: Zepplin
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £2.99 Tape, N/A Disk
Reviewer: Steve Keen

It's always been a problem for us here at S.U. Towers. What do you say when someone has blatantly taken rather an entertaining game, copied it's style exactly but changed the characters and ended up with something almost the identical clone?

For Sharkey's Moll is Operation Wolf right down to the spinning daggers that come careering towards you. Sure the grenades have been swapped for Molotov cocktails and the tanks for Chugaboom look alikes, and the baddies have left the Territorial Army and joined the "Family" and purchased ill fitting suits, but they still hide behind doors, pop up from underneath you and run onto the side of the screen to dive infringe of your blazing guns.

Just in case you don't know what the snek's going on I'll run the scenario by you again. There are six levels of left to right scrolling shoot 'em up action. You are issued with a basic machine gun that can be swapped for an upgraded version by shooting any of the various models that you come across lying on the ground. You have a limited supply of bullets displayed as magazines and individual shots on the right hand side of the screen as well as Molotov cocktails (Bombs!) that clear the entire street. Other bits and extras can be picked up in similar fashion to the guns. All death and destruction is dished out by a cursor that floats ethereally in mid air about the play field. At the end of each level an informer comes on to tell you which way to go next. If you shoot him you'll wish you hadn't as you'll be sentenced harshly and forced to play the level again.

Operation Wolf was a great arcade game because of the big rattling machine gun. Quite why anyone would want to play this in home computer form at all has always puzzled me. This version employs some fabulous backdrops and sprite graphics but the sluggish control for the cursor (especially when there's a lot going on) gives it the final kiss of death. Pity 'cos it looks just great.

GARTH:
Not bad as it goes but after 20 minutes you start to wish you were watching any part of the Godfather trilogy.