Ocean/Andy Deakin and Ivor Horn
£9.99 cass, £14.99 disk
Roy Adams, the star of Operation Wolf is back in the firing line in Operation Thunderbolt. And this time he's brought a friend - name of Hardy Jones - and together they're after a bunch of terrorists who've hijacked a commercial transport DC-20 and are holding the passengera hostage. They're demanding the immediate release of 23 comrades, or in ten hours the hostages die.
Taking off from Boston the plane has been lost from the radar somewhere over Calvia, Africa. Calvia's leader General Kadam denies all knowledge of the hijackers and warns that if US troops are sent to his country they will be regarded as intruders and fired upon. The US President not surprisingly is concerned (peeved) at this and decides to send Roy and Hardy into carry out Operation Thunderbolt - locate and free all hostages with minimal(!) force.
Impersonating the dynamic duo, eight levels of blasting action stand between you and the hostages. Some of the screens head vertically into the distance (rather like a racing game - but without the cars), whilst the rest scroll horizontally across the screen, Op Wolf style. A cursor aims your gun, and you need every clip of ammo, while soldiers tanks, jets etc race to greet you. The gunsight is also used to pick up the hostages. As in Operation Wolf the shooting of certain objects or people reveals bonus objects like First Aid Kits, body armour, rockets which can be collected to aid in your fight. Undodged bullets or undeflected grenades, knives etc knock the old damage meter up - and if full it's goodnight Vienna and hello afterlife.
Operation Wolf (91% issue 59) was received by us CRASH louts with great enthusiasm, and I'm glad to say that almost a year later Operation Thunderbolt has stirred similar feelings. The two player option isa great improvement, a second UZI is very welcome, 'cos the game contains the same hectic 'spray bullets around likes maniac' formula. Between this and Cabal I must admit that I liked this slightly more, but that's just personal preference.
MARK [92%]
Last Chrissy I was rather pleased to find a copy of Op Wolf in my red and blue stripey stocking (shame I was still wearing them - those cassette boxes can give you a nasty scratch), so it was with much excitement that this was loaded. Yes, all the bullet-spraying mayhem is back: bigger, bolder and better than before. Again, the detailed monochrome accurately recreates the feel of the coin-op, but this time they're much more varied - watch out for the cool guys in shades that pop up for rather down) in level six - they're brilliant. Two-player games add even more fun to the already addictive ameplay and cause some *!!@ shouts in hectic mid-massacre. Grab hold of your UZI, load it up with ammo and kill!!!
NICK [91%]
Ocean
£9.99 cassette/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Jackie Ryan
It's big, it's mean, and it's as tough as my granny's sponge cake. What is it? Only Operation Thunderbolt, the most eagerly awaited shoot-'em-up sequel since... um... the second series of Moonlighting. And is it a corker or what?
Similar in plot to its big brother Operation Wolf, your mission in Thunderbolt is, of course, to rescue the hostages. This time round though there are eight levels ahead of you (or nine if you count the final hostage scene), the baddies are bigger and tougher and more numerous than before, and you also get the option of taking a chum along into the tray with you if you want - 'cos just like the arcade version, this game has a spanky two player option.
As in Wolf, you begin the game armed with a complete energy level, an Uzi, live magazines and three grenades. The aim of the game is to shoot everything in sight. But, pumping away at the fire button, it's difficult to suss out exactly where you're firing at first, 'cos in Thunderbolt there's no large cross hair a la Wolf. Instead the only sight you have for your gun is a one pixel cursor which gives you a minimal idea of where your shots are falling. You can lose a few shots to get the feel of your weapon (oo-er). but your best bet is to keep your eyes peeled for the laser sight icon which appears near the beginning of every level. This'll give you a laser sight on your gun for the rest of the level. Not as big as the Oppo Wolf cross hair, but still very handy.
Once you've sussed out the firing system it's down to business. On each level you have to take out a certain number of baddies, tanks, dinghies and helicopters in order to move on. Unfortunately, though, you only have a limited amount of ammo with which to do this, but there are extras to be found. Keep your eyes peeled for the following icons - body armour, which'll reduce your damage level by half for the rest of the level, extra ammo, in the form of magazines, grenades and shell boxes, and a power drink and medicine box which'll revitalise damaged energy supplies. Cats (of the bewhiskered variety) are also unlikely providers of extra weaponry and energy.
Your first task is to make your way down a terrorist-infested road towards a church where a spy with vital information is hiding out. Blammo! The first screenful of baddies hits you like a kick in the teeth. 'Cos unlike Wolf with its left/right scrolling (but just like the arcade game) Thunderbolt opens up with an into-the-screen scrolling level and a barrage of big, big baddies leaping out of the screen towards you, unleashing a veritable hail of bullets, grenades, rockets, and helicopters. Blasting your way down the road takes some doing. The terrorists can be dispatched with one bullet, but the helicopters need a lot more shots before they can be destroyed! But waste your quota of baddies and make it to the church without sustaining too much damage, and it's onto Level Two.
This is a left, right horizontal scroller and takes place in the enemy's ammunition depot. Destroy the depot, pick up some more magazines, bullets and grenades, then jump into your jeep for Level Three. Make it through this (another into-the-screen scroller with you in a jeep) and you'll reach the hideout where the hostages are kept in Level Four. This is another left right scroller, but, apart from blasting everything that moves, you've also got to release the hostages from the huts where they are being held. Do this by shooting the locks off the doors. Once the hostage moves off screen they are rescued, but if you shoot one by mistake you'll lose a life. Lose them all and it's end of game for you, matey. So beware of that itchy trigger finger.
Into your boat for Level Five, and another into-the-screen scroller. Make your way across the water to the enemy headquarters where the other hostages are being held. Then battle on into the headquarters in the left/right scrolling Level Six. Right in the thick of the enemy camp there are terrorists coming out of the ceiling as well as the floor. Rescue the hostages being held here and then it's on to the into-the-screen scrolling Level Seven, where you must hotfoot it down the runway after the terrorists.
Level Eight is yet another front view scene. This time you are inside the plane where the terrorists have taken refuge. Pick off the terrorists without shooting the passengers already onboard. As in the hostage levels, lose a passenger and your energy will drop. Get this far (and it'll take some that's f'sure) and there's just one more task to complete. The pilot of the plane has been taken hostage by the terrorist leader. You must take careful aim before trying to kill the dodging terrorist without harming the pilot. Rescue the pilot and you complete the mission and end the game. Lose the pilot though and it becomes impossible to fly the plane, so the game's over. Aww, and just as you were doing so well too.
Operation Thunderbolt is one of the most slickly programmed games I've seen in a long time. It's fast, smoothly scrolling and a blast a minute. The basic game may be much the same as Operation Wolf, but with Thunderbolt's longer length, bigger and more numerous sprites, varied scrolling, extra final showdown shoot-out and two player option to boot, it's more than worth shelling out for. Go get a copy now.
REPLAY
In an effort not to appear Dutch, we've got hold of the brightest reviewers and the newest games. And it's all for you!
The Hit Squad
£3.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley
Operation Thunderbolt is an into-the-screen shoot-'em-up which is viewed from the first person perspective. There's an interesting twist in that the baddies look as if they are shooting out of the telly screen and directly at you. For added realism you can shout "ouch" every time you're shot. If you want to make things even more realistic you could point a toy gun at the screen and shoot "bang", whilst cunningly using the other hand to play the game.
The idea is to shoot absolutely everything on screen except the hostages. You're supposed to be saving them, although the temptation to blast them is somewhat overpowering. Ammo is strictly limited, but more can be picked up along the way. Without doubt, or any form of bias, the best conversion of all 8 and 16-bit games was on the Spectrum. It's quite phenomenal that any home computer can cope with five large baddies, a helicopter or two flying above, and a two-player option. But guess what? The Speccy can. It's fast, it's frantic, it's varied and it's great with two players. It's been cloned but this is the original (well, the follow up) and the best. Cripes - another YS Megagame.
Label: Ocean
Author: Andrew Deakin
Price: £8.95
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins
A DC10 en route from Paris to Boston has been hijacked! Fiendish Arab terrorists hold the passengers hostage in Africa! A rescue operation is swiftly launched, and there's only one man who can possibly pull it off - Clinton Jawgrinder! Unfortunately he's visiting his aunt Maude in Timperley, so the job falls to Roy Adams. Who? I thought he was the Minister of Herrings, or something, but no, he's the hero of coin-op classic Operation Wolf, and now the spectacular sequel, Operation Thunderbolt.
Now loads of people said "Naaah, Operation Wolf, it can't be converted, they'll never do it", but of course they were wrong, they did, and dead good it was too, dead being the operative word considering the truly sponditious amount of shooting involved. Although nothing could quite recapture the excitement of having your own Uzi sub-machinegun as mounted on the coin-op, the graphics were fab and the action non-stop. But Operation Thunderbolt with it's double machine guns and 3-D routines - HOW COULD THEY POSSIBLY DO IT??!!
You'll be astonished to hear (unless you've seen last month's Megatape demo of Operation Thunderbolt, in which case you won't be a bit astonished) that this is an excellent conversion of the coin-op. OK, it's basically a reworking of Op Wolf rather than a whole new game, but the speed, the technical marvellousness and the sheer non-stop action make it a dead cert for the top of the charts.
Op Thunder (as it's known to its friends) has eight levels of staggering violence; on the 48K they load one at a time. In 128K the first five load in one go, and the others as you get to them.
Level One is mighty impressive - rather than the hordes of Arabs and helicopter gunships simply running from right to left, there's a perspective 3-D effect, soldiers, choppers and war-torn buildings moving past you as you press deeper and deeper into hostile territory. As with Op Wolf, the aim is simply to survive by gunning down everything that moves, including tokens which give you extra clips of ammunition, extra rockets, medical aid, and special weapons.
The main special weapons are laser sights and a bullet-proof vest. If you don't get the laser sights, you can't see where the hell you're shooting; your initial gunsight is a single pixel, and you can only tell its position by the location of the small explosions your shots cause. So stick to the bottom of the screen, watch out for the pistol representing the laser gunsight, and zap it as soon as you [OBVIOSULY TEXT MISSING HERE] the distance and your sight changes to a small circle, which makes it easier to deal the mayhem.
Frankly, although this element of the game is faithful to the coin-op, it's irritating to have to pick up a new laser sight each time you lose a life; it might have been better to START with the small circle, and move on to something more substantial.
Still, once you're tooled up, the carnage proceeds merrily. Keep an eye on your ammo counter, shooting magazines and rockets to refill, blast the helicopters a bunch at a time with your rockets, cut swathes through the soldiers and watch out for the cats. Cats? Yes, zap a passing moggy and it leaps realistically and more than likely leaves behind a bit of ammo or a power capsule.
Work your way through to level two and you'll find it pretty similar to Op Wolf, with the Arabs lurking in blockhouses, hopping out of windows to attack you with rockets. I particularly liked the little man in the background who throw huge menacing handgrenades which spin towards you. Level three sees you in a jeep; in level four you must shoot the locks off doors without killing hostages, and defeat a heavily-armed officer; level five takes place in a boat, and so on. I don't honestly see how one player will ever get this far; in two player mode, with one concentrating on the top half of the screen and one on the bottom, you might just manage it.
Between each level you get an assessment of your performance in terms of targets hit and percentage of good shots; I rarely got above 30%, so there's obviously room for improvement. In two player mode, if one player loses a life, he presses a restart button to re-enter the game at any point; joystick and key controls are very flexible, but it is a bit annoying having to neglect the joystick and hit the keyboard to fire a rocket at a crucial moment.
There's no real element of strategy to Op Thunder, unless you count the need to avoid running out of ammo by holding the fire button down and just shooting it all off in one long squirt.
Operation Thunderbolt is dead hard, not just in the "See you Jimmy you spilled my pint" sense, but also in the "really, really difficult" sense, so if you splash out on it you'll certainly get your money's worth.
JIM SEZ: 90%"Lovely lovely lovely, but I'm not too happy about this "invisible sightsbusiness".
Label: Hit Squad
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter
Roy Adams is as tough as old boots. Old army boots in fact! And that's damn tough.
And strangely enough, Operation Thunderbolt is no pushover either.
You are as tough as old boots, (you probably smell like it too), and it's up to you to machine-gun your way past whole battalions of tooled up to the teeth tinkers who are determined to stop you in your tracks (or boots if you like), and thwart your mission which is to cause havoc and rescue hostages.
Play is excellent - you move your fire around the screen and rain death upon the massed hordes of the enemy (dakka, dakka, dakka). You can even pick up extra magazines of bullets and rockets which can be used to devastating effect. There're even medical and power packs which restore energy, Gucci bullet proof vests and designer laser sights with which to aid your progress (and show everyone what all the well-dressed trigger-pullin' psychos are wearing this Autumn).
Operation Thunderbolt is a an excellent conversion from the Taito original. The game would be perfect if only you could mount a machine gun on your Speccy, but that would be very hard, harder than Roy Adams' old boots...
ALAN:
I'm a bit of psycho sometimes and I like this. The graphics are excellent but control is sometimes a little too slow.
Ocean prove that two guns are better than one in this Op Wolf sequel.
Ocean are getting good mileage out of their Taito tie up. So far the Japanese coin op manufacturer have provided the company with home version hits of New Zealand Story, Operation Wolf, Chase HQ and now the follow up to Operation Wolf, the best selling game of Christmas '88.
Thunderbolt's two Uzi sub machine guns mounted atop its massive cabinet have made it a favourite amongst younger gamers. But this is no toy for tiny tots - there is a tough game challenge in there that will appeal to players of all ages.
Your excuse for pulling the trigger is that aircraft hijackers are holding hostages deep in the African jungle. The government decides to get tough and sends in the commandos, which is where you come into it, clutching your joystick or light-gun.
The game improves on the original horizontally scrolling levels of Op. Wolf by featuring some 3D scenarios; the depressing truth, however, is that the real appeal still lies in simple gun lust. This is not a game for pacifists, or indeed for anyone with the slightest moral qualms about armed combat.
To succeed in rescuing the hostages you have to battle through eight tough levels without letting your life barometer tick down to zero. Your on-screen presence is no more than the gun sights of your machine gun, and during the fusillade, rocket launchers, additional ammunition, bullet proof vests, grenades, and medical packs can be picked up by shooting these items as they appear.
The first level challenges you to blast your way through various foot soldiers until you find the enemy spy. Pump him for information and then you are on to level Two - the Ammunition Dump. The simple aim here is to replenish your supplies.
Level Three places you at the wheels of a jeep and is one of the more impressive 3D levels. Your aim here is to reach the enemy hideout where some of the hostages have been taken.
Level Four gives you your chance to rescue the first of the hostages - but you will need to be an accurate shot to do so - you liberate the unfortunate fellows by shooting the locks off the doors. There is a heavily armed officer at the end of this level who is out to stop you.
You take to the water in a gun boat in Level Five in an attempt to reach the enemy HQ. You will need to save some rockets for this level to take out the heavily armed enemy craft that speed towards you. Level Six takes you inside the HQ where more hostages are to be held by heavily armed senior officers.
The last two levels take you to the airport where you battle your way to the remains of the hijacked DC 10 and free the remainder of the hostages. The climax calls for accurate shooting as you fight your way down the central aisle of the jetliner shooting the terrorists without hitting any of the hostages.
Apart from the attractive static screens between levels, there are plenty of surprises to be had by shooting incidental things that appear in your line of vision. All too often these turn out to be unfortunate animals who have strayed into the battle zone.
Operation Thunderbolt is at its best with a light gun - emulating the feel of the coin-op original far better than using the joystick to move your cross hair around the screen. The relatively simple screen presentation also lends itself very well to home conversion - even on 8-bit the game plays recognizably like the arcade machine. This is a fast and furious shoot 'em up with a good, planned, increase in difficulty and graphical rewards to sustain interest.
Reviewer: Eugene Lacey
RELEASE BOX
Atari ST, £19.99dk, Imminent
Amiga, £24.99dk, Out Now
Spec, £9.99cs, Out Now
Amstrad, £9.99cs, Out Now
C64/128, £9.99cs, Imminent
Predicted Interest Curve
1 min: 55/100
1 hour: 65/100
1 day: 60/100
1 week: 52/100
1 month: 48/100
1 year: 20/100
Ocean; £9.99cs; Amstrad and Amiga versions reviewed issue 29; ACE Rating 815 and 927 respectively
Taito's blood 'n' guts coin-op Operation Wolf went down a storm with arcade addicts, who were all able to pop along to their local outfit after a hard days grind and practice killing the boss with an Uzi - very refreshing. Hardly surprising then that being able to do it with a friend in Operation Thunderbolt was even better. Even less surprising is Ocean's release of this game after the successful conversion of Wolf.
The best thing to say about the Spectrum conversion is that it is very competent and quite a lot of fun. In the end though I found that, as ever, the monochrome graphics began to get in the way of my full enjoyment of the game. When things get frantic it becomes almost impossible to pick individual figures out against the background. It's a shame that it is this totally unavoidable factor which spoils an otherwise superb conversion.
Ocean
Spectrum £8.99, Amstrad £9.99
Last year Ocean's conversions of Operation Wolf took the Christmas charts by storm, and this year the sequel, Operation Thunderbolt, looks set to do the same.
Based on the Taito coin-op in which features a pair of cabinet-mounted Uzi machine pistols, Operation Thunderbolt casts the players as two soldiers of fortune who are on a six-level mission to rescue hostages from a hijacked plane which has been forced to land deep behind enemy lines.
The action starts with 3D level in which you run down a road, picking off hordes of soldiers and helicopters with your on-screen cursor before they have a chance to open fire and wear down your energy bar. Careful shooting is the key here since you have limited amounts of ammunition.
If things get too hot you can always give yourself a little breathing room by letting rip with a bazooka missile, which clears the area for a couple of seconds.
As you progress through the level, extra weapons can be picked up by shooting boxes and items on the ground - these include rapid fire, laser sights and extra rockets, energy and Uzi magazines.
Next is an Operation Wolf-style horizontally scrolling level in which even more soldiers and vehicles are present to give you severe hassle.
Subsequent levels switch between 3D and horizontally scrolling, depicting a hazardous trip through the jungle, a ride over water in a speedboat, a hazardous dash across the enemy airport and finally the storming of the plane itself. This is very tough, with passengers running everywhere - shoot them and you lose energy - and baddies leaping out from all angles. Get to the end of the plane and shoot the hijackers and you complete the mission.
Although some might say that Operation Thunderbolt offers little new, the implementation of both versions are excellent. The gameplay is action-packed with loads of things to blast - I've never seen so many sprites on-screen at once!! It's very tough indeed, and takes a lot of practice before you can even get past the first level without using the continue option if you're playing solo - having a friend handy is advisable!
Novices might find Operation Thunderbolt too tough, but if you're a fan of Operation Wolf style games and are after a challenge, try this out.
Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99
A RESCUE IN WOLF'S CLOTHING
You have succeeded in producing the Number One computer game for Christmas 1988. Now go on to do the same in '89...
Arab guerillas have hijacked a commercial transport DC-20 scheduled for Boston, USA. They demanded the immediate release of 23 imprisoned comrades - or in ten hours they would kill all hostages. The aircraft was lost somewhere over Calvia, Africa, where it disappeared from radar.
The President of the United States negotiated through Calvia's General Kadam - who strenuously denied any knowledge of either hijackers or hostages. He forbade the President to send US forces into Calvia and would regard them as invaders and declare war. In a tight situation and with time running out, it was the Chief Secretary who provided the answer: they would send Roy Adams, commando of Operation Wolf, to fight anonymously through Calvia and free the hostages.
And yes, it's up to you to be the guiding hands of Roy's gunsight but this time a friend can help you as his ex-Vietnam colleague, Hardy, in this operation - Operation Thunderbolt! Though it's generally the same bullet-spraying action it differs from Wolf in that in some of the eight levels you're travelling into the screen, a perspective view similar to a racing game - minus the curves and high speed. The familiar slow rightward scroll also makes its mark with a vengeance.
This is the case in level (Mission) one, where you're marching up a road toward a church, where a spy is hiding. As in the original game, the playing area above the status panels is effectively your body (and that of your friend, if appropriate) so that a missile shot 'out' of the screen - be it bullet, Apache rocket, dagger or grenade - reduces your life energy.
The gunsight has the freedom of the screen and is mostly used to gun down soldiers, of which there are more than enough, and there are three end-of-level bosses among them. It's also used to free hostages and to pick up useful items dropped by eliminated enemies. These include First Aid kits, power drinks, body armour, magazines and rockets to boost your ammunition supply. Rockets are used sparingly, generally upon helicopters but also jeeps, boats and buildings.
Operation Thunderbolt is basically Wolf but on a bigger, better scale, in some levels you're shooting from a boat or jeep and although your viewpoint is only altered by the addition of barely noticeable vehicle frontage at the bottom of the playing area, it gives a much greater potential for varied enemy graphics. This, I'm sure, was the intention when Taito designed the coin-op and it pays off, adding more life (if not blood!) to the gameplay. It's helped by the forward motion used in these levels - enemies approaching from the horizon makes a pleasant change from side attacks.
Two-player games add more appeal and adds volume to games as you shout out instructions to each other in order to massacre the enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible and get the hostages rescued.
Basically Thunderbolt has the same great mindless, bloodthirsty action that made Operation Wolf so fun and addictive to play, and in fact that's its only fault. Some people may find it just too much like the original, although newcomers will be surprised at how playable it is and Wolf fans will love it.
A year on from the best-selling original, Operation Thunderbolt has gameplay elements that both bring back memories and add new excitement, not least of which is the great two-player option. Fun, playable, addictive - go for your gun with Ocean and you won't regret it.
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