Pole vault champion trips up
Sergei Bubka's Millennium Games
PC CD-Rom £24.99 Dinamic/Midas ** Interactive
The box lid of Millennium Games lists Sergei Bubka's selling points: "Unrivalled world champion. An amazing career that spans two decades. Six-time consecutive Pole Vaulting World Champion. Holder of 35 World Records (17 outdoor, 18 indoor)." Just in case the message hasn't quite got through, the instructions begin with a section eulogising the althlete's (admittedly impressive) achievements all over again. By now, I'm convinced I want to buy Sergei Bubka. But what about his game?
Actually, "his" game is overstating the case. Apart from the deification in the literature and a mugshot on the menu, the Ukrainian high flyer does not feature at all.
True, the pole vault is one of the 19 events in this athletics sim (albeit one for which there is no tutorial). The other 18 are standard track-and-field stuff: hurdles, throws, jumps, sprints and long-distance running.
Where this differs from its competitors is its MDP (mouse-driven power) system. This involves a rotating ring below the athlete with a fixed marker on its inner circumference. The object is to keep to the mouse button depressed while the green section of the disc passes beneath the marker, and to release it when it gets to red. This seems simple enough, and makes a half-decent stab at modelling athletic action.
In practice, though, it is a strain to have to focus on a spinning disc, especially in the longer events. And when you are concentrating on a space just below the athlete's feet, you tend to miss out on other things - like where the no-throw line is, or what your athlete looks like. Fortunately for those with fewer than six eyes, a button-bashing mode is also available.
On the subject of looks, the graphics are smooth enough, but far from detailed, and with a slightly washed-out feel. The crowd sounds, meanwhile, seem to have been lifted from a cockfight instead of an athletics stadium.
If the events themselves are less than thrilling, the campaign modes are a fun addition. You can, if you choose, attempt to train an entire national team, with the aim of bringing home as many medals as possible.
The more rewarding option is the decathlete trainer mode, in which you guide a young sports star through training, injuries and successively bigger competitions towards the ultimate goal of Olympic gold.
Enjoyable as this is, it still entails mastering the individual events. Which, given the annoyingly vague tutorials and the blink-and-you'll-muff-it control system, is a tall order. If you do ever win a medal, you deserve one. (AB)
Shameless cash-in lacks punch
X-Men
Sony PlayStation £29.99 Activision **
Back in the good old days, when games came on tapes and keyboards dressed in rubber, all manner of movie licences were hastily ported on to the dominant genres of the day.
Robocop was a side scrolling platform game, while Indiana Jones offered similar thrills. Batman? Well, rest assured, there were plenty of ledges to reach.
In short, movie licences quickly became known as a shortcut to an unimaginative, lazy and pointless game.
Unfortunately, in the 21st century things have got little better. With the exception of Goldeneye, film-licensed games are still struggling to reach mediocrity. Remember Phantom Menace?
However, the just released X-Men movie, with its freakish set of characters, seemed to offer the basis for a cracking game. So, what do we get? Certainly not a stylish adventure epic.
X-Men is, in fact, a fighting game - and a bog standard one at that. Graphics? Fine. Sound? Adequate. Originality? Snore, er pardon?
X-Men shamelessly filches Street Fighter's feel and ridiculous special moves before adding some Tekken character design.
And, if you have always suspected that beat-'em-up games are hollow exercises in button-bashing, then look here for confirmation. Extensive blindfold testing has revealed that random finger gymnastics are often as successful as a more studied approach.
Anyhow, with rewards including movie clips and comic photos, you would have to be a real fan to want to practise this one.
Despite the inclusion of 10 X-Men characters, comically pummelling each other in front of some authentic movie backdrops, this is uninspiring fare. Shamelessly derivative, and with a pungent whiff of cash-in, X-Men is yet another film-licensed disappointment. (GH)
Wham, BAM - the bubble bursts
Bust-A-Move 4
Sega Dreamcast £24.99 Taito/Acclaim ***
Bust-A-Move is a classic puzzle game that stands comparison with Tetris and Columns, and while it's not as compulsive as those in single-player mode, it is a much better multi-player game. Bust-A-Move's forte is head-to-head battles, either player v computer or player v player.
But like the later, fancier versions of Tetris, Bust-A-Move 4 has lost much of the simplicity that was one of its attractions. Adding more puzzles, and bubbles with different behaviours, has made it a bit more challenging and a lot more confusing.
In the graphics department more turns out to be less. This is one of the few games that does not seem to benefit from the Dreamcast's superior graphics and sound. In fact, BAM4 takes the saccharine Japanese graphics style to a peak of excess. It is so cute it makes Super Mario Brothers look like gritty realism.
The aim of the game is the same. You shoot coloured bubbles at a descending network of existing coloured bubbles, and they stick together. When three or more bubbles of the same colour are stuck to one another, they burst, and fall down the screen. But not only can you remove three or more bubbles this way, you can also remove any bubbles that depended on them for support. This is the tricky bit, and the way to score huge bonuses, in what is always a race against time.
BAM4 is a very playable game, and a welcome addition to the Dreamcast line-up, especially at the price. But the original PlayStation version was simpler and just as satisfying. (JS)
