Commando

Elite did it again!

I remember trying to conquer this arcade shooter on my ZX Spectrum long before I became an ST nutter. However, no matter how much I loved it, I always sucked because it was so difficult. Thankfully, I've improved with age because I've finally beaten the first stage with those tricky soldiers. It's small victories like this that keep me going!

Unsurprisingly, our conversion has more glam in comparison to that gory Speccy game. I also think we received an authentic conversion with responsive controls, gorgeous smooth scrolling and everything is zany and as spritely as it should be. The one-joystick/button method to control works well compared to the original arcade controls.

Commando is something I love and hate with equal measure, so it's a good job this old skool shooter is so infuriatingly addictive. Highly recommended - if you've got a couple of hours spare to master the learning curve!!

Grab a BB Gun before daring to download Commando for floppy or hard disk.

Fernandez Must Die

Let's kill everyone!!

ImageWorks released what is nothing less than a cool shoot 'em up in 1988 and is pretty much another Commando/Ikari Warriors clone designed to unleash our inner combat soldier. Every time I play, I'm reminded of those A-Team episodes taking place in a dodgy part of South America. Just like the tv show, an evil dictator is causing havoc but B.A. Baracus refuses to get on the plane! We're on our own so grab a weapon and head out to the killing fields, soldier!

The war zone is stuffed with enemy soldiers and their slow-flying bullets that we can easily dodge. Our weapon of choice is a machine gun with unlimited ammo but we have a rocket launcher for extra firepower. Some buildings can be plundered by blowing off the door with dynamite which is especially useful on ammunition depots! We're not only on foot as vehicles can be utilised very easily. And what's better than the option of mowing down a few soldiers?

The visuals are very 1980s using a clean cartoon style with details for the soldiers and buildings. It's always colourful and interesting to explore the terrain looking for enemies to blast. Not only that but ImageWorks didn't wimp out and employ smooth scrolling. The audio is great with sampled sounds used for the sound effects. No complaints from me.

This is one of those games I'm glad I bought because it's excellent - fantastic fun and highly addictive without ever taking itself seriously. Fernandez Must Die might have zero originality but it makes up for that with bucketloads of gun-love action. This is an awesome Commando shooter and possibly one of my favourites for the Atari ST!!

Get out on that battlefield using either a floppy or hard disk!

Bullets flying and armouries to loot. This is just like being part of the A-Team!!

Watch out for sneaky soldiers hiding in the trees and also those operating gun turrets.

The action comes thick and fast and the onslaught of soldiers never ceases. Oops, I died!!

War Zone

War Zone is Core's attempt to take on the Commando genre by releasing a frantic shoot 'em up Rambo would be proud of. Sadly, it doesn't quite work because of its extreme difficulty - it's just too darn easy to die thanks to poor design and mechanics. This is one of those moments when something looks and sounds better than it actually is.

Sadly, what we have is nothing more than an average shooter which is disappointing because it looked great from the screenshots I saw before playing. The problem is that horrendous difficulty level and I'm sure nobody tested this before releasing it, which is a shame. So I'd stick with the likes of Fernandez Must Die, Ikari Warriors, and Commando.