£2.99
Players Premier
Before you say anything I world just like to point out that task Force is not anything like Cybernoid II... well perhaps just a bit then (hem hem). But what's it all about?
Snide Gantree has been up to his old tricks again and with his evil mercenary mates has overrun our top secret South Pacific Airforce base. The naughty people. In less than live hours Snide's men will have hacked into the targeting computers that control all the cruise missiles, and you know what that means... trouble with a capital TRUB!
The game is made up of loadsa screens, all which have really neat and well-coloured graphics. The main sprite, like the aliens, is not all that detailed, but the non-stop action keeps your mind fully alert. As with many other Players games there are mini puzzles to be solved in between the action. I recommend this for a good blast but don't expect much lastability.
BARGAIN BASEMENT
Skint? Or just tight? Then follow Marcus Berkmann down to his lair and sample his goodies (oo-er). None over three quid (or to you madam, £2.99).
Players Premier
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann
"Mercenaries led by the evil Snide Gantree have overrun our top secret South Pacific Air Force base. In less than four hours..." Yes yes yes. In fact it's fairly easy to see how Snide and his troops managed to take control of this base, for whoever built it based its design almost entirely on that of a well known computer game - Hewson's Cybernoid. Worra coincidence! And it's no less surprising that, of all people, it is you who have been asked to undertake the usual daredevil solo mission to recapture the base (you must be a little tired of these by now, I'd've thought) Fortunately, you are a pilot of the aforementioned TASKFORCE airfighter, which just happens to be fitted with all of those lovely weapons you get in Cybernoid. Nice the way these things work out, isn't it? It's fair to say, then, that you now already know whether you're going to buy this game or not. It's not as sophisticated as the original - or indeed as original as the original - but it's a jolly little shoot 'em up with some entertainingly wacky palm trees and a couple of weapon systems you won't find in many air force bases. Shameless, perhaps, but fun.
Label: Players Premier
Author: Knight/Beston/Severn
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon
The Taskforce is in fact "a state of the art jet fighter bristling with destructive firepower missiles, heat seekers, mines, orbitals and bouncing bombs", or so the blurb says. All I can say to add to that is it must be one hell of a jet plane..
It can fly in eight directions, hover and saying that it's a low level attack craft is like saying that the channel tunnel is going to be a bit damp on the outside. Taksforce, which let's face it is a pretty bad name for an aircraft, flies through caverns and down deep within the bowels of the planet, seeking out... the dreaded Snide Gartree!
Dan dan daaa! (Woman's voice) No, not the Snide Gantree. (Butch male voice) Yes, the Snide Gantree. That dastardly bunch of mercenaries led by none other than Graham Taylor. Shortly after losing his job on SU and moving off to become Editor of C+GT, he lost his mind under the pressure of working on the same floor as Ad Manager Garry Williams. His will snapped, and he now threatens to take over the world. He doesn't quite know how yet, but he says where there's a will, there's a way. (This is all lies, what's going on? - Alison.)
After a build up like that, naturally you'd expect a brilliant game to follow. Yet again, the Spectrum software industry lets you down. It's good, but it's far from brilliant. Viewed, and in fact played very similarly to Cybernoid 2, the screen flips in four directions, though unlike Cybernoid, the game is a maze, rather than a set pattern. That said, it's not a very difficult maze.
As in Cybernoid, you have a selection of weapons to choose from. These range from four way bouncing bombs, through delayed four-way bouncing bombs to shield, taking in a homing missile or two along the way.
Another thing the game has that isn't in Cybernoid is a sub-game. In TF, you have to find all the missile activate icons that when detonated, will blow up the island and take the Snide with it. You are presented with three pegs, one of which has a pile of three blocks. You have to move the pile, a block at a time onto one of the other two pegs. The only rule is you can't put a large peg onto a small peg and you have to take the top peg in any pile. Fun eh?
Taskforce is fun for a short while, but it isn't something I'd have to keep playing for hours before I could happily relinquish the joystick. It's good but no more.
Players Premier
Spectrum/C64 £2.99
The task forced upon the player in this flip-screen shooter is to guide his jet fighter through a veritable labyrinth of screens packed with blob-firing nasties. Megalomaniac Snide Gantree is at the bottom of this very bad scene, and it's up to you to stop him getting away with a load of cruise missiles.
One thing that has to be said about Task Force is that the whole game looks suspiciously Cybernoidy. The ground emplacments and the extra weapons operate in almost exactly the same manner and even some of the graphics are nearly identical. However, weedy sound and ropey collision detection which results in impossible situations take the shine off what could have been an interesting game
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