Army Moves

Reliving Christmas 1987

The last time I played Army Moves was probably on my Spectrum +3 just before moving up to the Atari ST. I remember it being part of Ocean's Live Ammo (that was a great compilation). It was extremely sluggish, very hard, and I was rubbish at it. Yep, so I never managed to beat the first level (stop laughing).

Army Moves was developed by Dinamic, who brought us After The War. Army Moves has many ideas borrowed from a variety of great(er) games, and it begins with us trundling over a damaged bridge in a surprisingly well-armed jeep. Firing the infinite supply of rockets at the constant flow of enemies whilst hopping over potholes in the hope of safely reaching the other side ...cough... Moon Patrol...

I think we need a screenshot of this opening level, so here it is...

The jeep is brilliant with realistic handling and fantastic leaping abilities! Yeah!! ;)

When variety isn't the spice of life!

The following level has us flying a helicopter over enemy territory protected by planes - blindly shooting whether you're in their sights or not. The controls are lethargic, making it difficult to avoid their shots. Don't forget to manually land on the helipad at the end - otherwise, you suffer a suckers' death!

The next part is more of the same, ie nothing-you-haven't-seen-before. The final levels take us through the jungle, avoiding grenades and silly buzzards before it flips into something resembling Joe Blade. Of all the levels, the first is the best, whereas the others are far too tough with many enemies.

Wanna see a screenshot? How about one that feels odd as it scrolls in the wrong direction...

Reversed scrolling is pretty weird and doesn't feel right, so it makes stage two quite frustrating!!

Speccy aesthetics?

Visually, I like Army Moves, but that's probably because I'm fondly reminded of my colour-clash days on the Speccy? The graphics are barebones, but I must admit, everything scrolls along nicely, and I do like the detail in the sprites. The helicopter levels feature parallax scrolling, which is a neat touch I appreciated.

David Whittaker's music plays throughout and isn't his best work, but it's still good. Nuff said.

Honestly, I swear that jeep doesn't fly all the time!

The CryptO'pinion?

I like some of Dinamic's ideas, but it tries too hard to be cool. They spoiled it with ludicrously-long levels, which is made worse by being sent back to the start after losing a life!! Ignoring the nearly-fun Jeep stage, I find it difficult to recommend this game - just play Moon Patrol, Silkworm, or Joe Blade instead.

Army Moves could have been great, but it feels like a rushed 8-bit conversion with a massive fistful of frustration. Unlike the Spectrum game, our conversion feels like a glammed-up quick port and one that lost much playability thanks to faster mechanics; scrolling, enemies, etc. I don't get it, what was Dinamic thinking?

The first level is the best, but the rest of the game is too difficult to be entertaining.

Wear camo and grab the floppies or hard disk version!