FIRE & FORGET II
Publisher : Titus
Release date : 1990
Genre : Racing / Shoot 'Em Up
Players : 1
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"Get ready to experience the most amazing arcade game ever designed for a console ! You control the THUNDER MASTER II, a combat vehicle of tremendous power capable of transforming into a menacing airbourne assaillant."
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Programming :
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Graphics :
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Music/Sounds :
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Download ROM
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Download Manual
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Editors review...
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Fire & Forget II is one of the very first games available on the GX4000, in fact I believe it was the first one reviewed (aside from Burnin' Rubber) in Amstrad Action who gave it a whopping 94%!! And yes, you'll soon find out that was a rediculous rating and review - and for me damaged their integrity somewhat. Obviously they wanted to be very positive about the machines launch and get people buying the carts and keep people excited (more GX4000 owners = more readers), that failed along with the console as a whole of course. But anyway onto the game ...
It's almost hard to find words for this game, not because it's 'so bad' but trying to drum up any kind of enthusiasm to write at length about it I'm struggling! As you can tell, I find this plod from Titus rather dull. In concept it doesn't sound too bad - initial impressions are a Mad Max 2 style racing romp shooting and blowing up stuff in a post-Apocalyptic landscape - cool, except there's very little to do and not much excitement. Again initial impressions from the graphics bode well - an absolutely gorgeous title screen greets you and as you start the game up it all looks rather colourful and a great sprite for your vehicle the "Thunder Master". But the landscape is rather barren (much like the gameplay) and occasionally some not very impressive small enemy sprites begin to lurch at you. The road twists and turns but your vehicle is not subject to any of these forces - you don't even have to steer or hold yourself on these bends (yawn), however talking of 'twists' - the twist in th tale here and star addition is that with enough special fuel your car can fly! This does add a bit more to the gameplay, suddenly turning it into a more Space Harrier type game (with the same targeting problems of shooting enemy sprites that game had). However it doesn't really add much more to the game, but enough to alleviate it above older road-shoot-em-up games like the already ageing Road Blasters.
Anyway, the concept of the game is to catch up with the final boss/truck on each level and blow it to smithereens! You can collect special missiles as you plod along which will help you accomplish this. To be honest I haven't been bothered to progress much passed level 2, but I will sit down and give this game a longplay and video at some point.
The only thing else to add is that the music and sound effects are above average - both are mixed together well in game, but of the usual Titus standard types.
Overall it's an 'ok' game that doesn't add anything new nor does it really push the GX4000 - for extra features all you get is a barely graduated background and a lovely title screen for your money, otherwise you may as well have bought the standard CPC game on tape/disk for a much cheaper price at the time. Unbelievably Titus had the balls to make this into an actual arcade game. In summary - not worth the price you would have paid, an 'ok' action game that'll pass 30 minutes of a day but not one you'll quickly return to.
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Graphics
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Nice use of colours, OK sprites - initially looks good but as you delve into the game is rather barren and bland.
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Music
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The usual Titus music! Same music programmer as always, starts to sound all the same these Titus games... but not bad at all, and new tunes for each level too!
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Sounds
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Some good explosions, crashes and shooting sounds to go along with the music.
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Presentation
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Some really lovely title screens, intermission screens between levels - and as I said above music for different levels and title screen etc ... Titus has put some effort in here for once!
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Programming
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Simple stuff competently programmed. No real bugs, tightly done but dull and pushing no boundaries here. Not having to steer round bends though is unforgivable - lazy!
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Playability
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Move left, right, up, down and shoot at things that appear. May have been good in 1983, but even 5 or 6 years later things had massively progressed.
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Lastability
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Boring, dull, and not one you'll be coming back to much.
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Concept
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A Mad Max 2 style apocalyptic driving shoot em up with flying bits sounded cool, shame about the execution.
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AI & Challenge
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Enemies basically have set patterns they follow, the flying baddies might give you more trouble as they're a little bit more random.
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GX4000 Features
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Fabulous title screen, graduated backgrounds, but that's it...
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Summary
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An OK but ultimately boring and uninspiring road shoot-em-up.
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Final Score
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64%
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Cheats...
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No cheats found.
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Further more...
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Amstrad Action final score : 55%
GX4000.CO.UK game ranking : #
Game value (boxed + instructions) : £10 - £25
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Credits...
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Manuals and some sleeve scans by mochilote at cpcmania.com
ROMS taken from NVG FTP Site maintained by Nich Campbell, see his other site - CPC Game Reviews
Cheats (various) taken from CPC Zone contributed by Hermol, cpc4eva, Malc and others
Inspiration generally taken from John King's PCW King GX4000 site
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