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BUY the rights to a well-known TV series. Find an old game knocking around which bears a passing resemblance to the scenario. Hey presto! another spin-off is born.


In Airwolf you are the pilot of the eponymous helicopter which you fly through a series of scrolled scenes.

Two-thirds of the screen contains scrubs and mountains and the middle third, through which Airwolf travels, looks like a long black tunnel.

The inlay card informs you that Airwolf must rescue five scientists, who are being held in a base somewhere beneath the Arizona desert. You are not told why or by whom.

Viewers of the television series will already be familiar with Airwolf. The plot rotates around a slick and sophisticated helicopter which fights the baddies.

Sadly though, the arcade game is a poor substitute. The graphics are dull and the tasks uninspired. The first obstacle, a wall, appears as Airwolf shoots through the 'tunnel'. While busy destroying the wall with full firing power it starts rebuilding itself.

If you succeed in demolishing that wall the next obstacle which comes into view is - yes, you guessed - a very familiar looking wall. Very imaginative.

Although there is the option for keyboard or joystick control the latter is well advised as all five keys would require simultaneous operation. The game bears a resemblance to Blue Thunder and is produced by the same company. This sheep in Airwolf's clothing is best avoided.



Colette McDermott

AIRWOLF Elite Memory: 48K Price: £6.95 Joystick: Kempston Gilbert Factor: 3

AIRWOLF
Elite / £6.95

Ross: How d'you fancy being in the role of Stringfellow Hawke in Elite's officially licensed version of Airwolf? The plot for those who don't know, is that five important US scientists are being held hostage in an underground base and Hawke alone will rescue them.
The game is only Kempston compatible and, although the keyboard controls are very responsive, they're not laid out as well as I'd have liked. But the helicopter graphic is drawn very well indeed and certainly behaves realistically; it tilts as you fly forward and falls under the force of gravity. In fact, all the graphics are very good, and there's clever use of shading to produce depth to the backdrops and a variety of colours.
The first obstacles to stand in your way are bands of anonymous blocks and these must be destroyed quickly, allowing no time for their replacement. The trick is to rapidly move the 'copter up and down while blasting away furiously. This is the best game yet from Elite and it's pretty difficult to play. Definitely one for the masochists. 4/5

Dave: Pretty graphics, but not a very interesting game. It seems to be written in compiled Basic, and my combination of RAM Turbo interface and Quickshot 2 rapid fire crashed it wonderfully! 2/5

Roger: This must be one of the most frustrating affairs I've ever had with the Speccy! Good, but too difficult to hold my attention. 3/5

AIRWOLF
Producer: Elite
Memory required: 48K
Retail price: £6.95
Language: machine code
Author: Richard Wilcox



All in a day’s work: Death rays...
As Stringfellow Hawke, a former Vietnam chopper pilot, and the only man in the free world trained to fly the billion-dollar helicopter Airwolf, you have been assigned a dangerous rescue mission by the ‘Firm’.

Five important US scientists are being held hostage deep in a subterranean base beneath the scorching Arizona desert. You must guide Airwolf on a series of perilous missions and bring about their release, each scientist one at a time. Only destruction of the defence control boxes strategically positioned within the cavern will allow Airwolf to descend to the heart of the base where the scientists are held.

So says the exciting inlay to this new game from Elite, the officially licensed version of the recent hit TV series starring Jan Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine.

The action takes place over several interlinked, scrolling screens, starting above ground. On the first two screens you are immediately faced with the defence fields, assembled boxes of blue which must be shot away box by box with the Airwolf’s powerful cannon. The problem is that the entire field regenerates itself within only a few seconds and you have to start all over again. Gaining the passage takes you along to the cavern entrance, also guarded by a similar field, only now you are shooting down. From there on each cave is guarded by large guns, electric fields, and the very narrowness of the cavern passages makes life tough. To survive a screen is not to be finished with it, since your actions on another screen may well alter the situation on the earlier one, allowing you to backtrack to get a stage further.

Airwolf is a thoroughbred helicopter and like any aristocrat is difficult to handle, one problem being that it has to be flown to keep it airborne, none of this negative gravity to help with the shooting.



CRITICISM

... and lethal caverns
‘Airwolf is one of those games you’re either going to be terribly addicted to and play to death, or you’re going to switch it off. It’s not that the game is bad, on the contrary it’s very good. BUT it’s so damn hard to get into and it takes practice just to get through the first obstacle. Like all other Elite games, Airwolf has very good graphics and the sound is alright. Your helicopter responds well to your actions and the game is fun to play (it would be better with a couple of friends)! If you fancy yourself a bit of an arcade ace then Airwolf could well prove you wrong! A vital accessory for this game is a strong firing finger — without it, you’re lost before you start. Airwolf is a slick program that is worth buying because it will keep you entertained for ages.’

‘Licensed games from well known films or TV often have little to do with the original, relying on the original to sell them. Airwolf is no exception — okay it is a helicopter, but so what, and so what indeed, Airwolf doesn’t need Jan Michael to sell it, the game can do it all by itself. This is one of the meanest arcade shoot em ups since they brought Scramble out on the big machines. The pace is violent, furiously fast and will totally destroy your index finger in the process. The game is hard and allows you no respite — you no sooner get through a defence ring and onto another screen with a sigh of relief and NO — it’s off again. Thrilling stuff! One clever touch is the neat recovery of a mistake made on the inlay which omits to tell you the fire-button. The loading screen finishes with the large words C TO SHOOT. Press C at your peril!’

‘There’s more to this game than meets the eye. At first I thought it was a damned difficult game with seemingly little content, just pretty graphics, with realistic shaded trees and snow-capped mountain tops in the distance. Looks good, eh? Well, after about an hour and a half of trying to remove a sing wall I was through, no, not through with the game, through with the wall, and then there was another wall, another half