The PAL games also had hideous black borders top and bottom of the screen.
Don't forget these magazines are written by the people who called the Mega Drive Ghouls 'n' Ghosts 'arcade perfect', said Rastan Saga II had 'thumping tunes', said Bloody Wolf looked 'rubbish' and who stole my tips and never gave me credit.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.
Well, in this guide, it describes the graphics in Bloody Wolf as good, though I have seen the "thumping tunes" quote in issue 3.
I think that the writers involved (Julian Rignall, Paul Rand, Paul Glancey, Bob Swan) were amongst the best reviewers of the time, though not without their faults, but then, who wasn't. They were witty, and at least knew a good put down when slagging off crap games, which gave me a good laugh. Describing the sprites in the NES version of Paperboy as "deformed" still raises a chuckle 
I've been comparing their reviews to yours, and there are some huge differences. For example, they give R-Type 95% and R-Type 2 94%, whereas you give the first part 4 stars and the second part only 2. You also give a rather unfair (in my opinion) review of Chase HQ, whereas Rignall and Co gave it 88%. But that's opinions for you.
Tell me about how they nicked your tips. When and where did they do that?
In volume 1 they say of Bloody Wolf "Bloody Wolf looks like a load of rubbish, but the very poor graphics belie an engrossing and absorbing action adventure"
A couple of examples of their slight penchant for overstatement. In their preview of the Mega Drive, they say of Thunderblade "...but as a conversion it's again identical to the original". Of course there's the MD GnG I mentioned, where they said "As arcade conversions go, this has to rank as the best we've witnessed on ANY machine. It's a pixel-for-pixel, sound-for-sound, play-for-play spot on copy of the original. There are simply NO differences!"
And they nicked some tips I sent to C&VG and printed them in the Vol. 1 guide without credit. These were a cheat code for Enduro Racer, a guide to Ys (which they took parts of and repeated without changing the wording) and some other stuff I've forgotten about over the years. No big deal, but in those days when I was young I was a bit miffed about that.
I don't hate Rignall & Co, I used to read C&VG a lot, but I do enjoy ripping on them, particularly when hindsight shows their writing to be often wildly innacurate.
And yup, I always thought Chase HQ was a bit naff, whatever format. Give me Out Run any day.
EDIT: oooh, I just found this and had to add it. In their preview for PCE Golden Axe (Vol2) they say "If anything, the graphics on the PC Engine Golden Axe look even better than their Mega Drive counterparts, with loads of sprites which actually look as though they've been spruced up a bit!"
Oh...my...God.
Topic: PC Engine UK review 1990 (Read 577 times)
