Wild Streets_Wcf Commodore 64 game

Due to some unnamed catastrophe, New York City has been left in ruins, terrorized by 'marginals and rodents' (i.e., street gangs) and ruled by drug barons who live in luxurious mansions. Needless to say, this is a tad embarrassing for the US government, so they ask the CIA to clean things up. While there's a law to stop the CIA operating in the US - look what they did to Nicaragua - director John Stevens isn't one to be troubled by such things. CIA checkpoints at strategic positions soon have the street gangs on the run.

At last, Virgin has some competition in the beat-'em-up biz, but truth be told, Titus hasn't produced much of a threat. On the C64, you can get through to Mr. Stevens by simply jumping over the thugs and using the gun since there's so much spare ammo lying around. The trip back is harder, but combat is so limited that you soon give up. Graphics are poor, with the main character having a pathetic mincing walk. On the Amiga, the graphics make much better use of the machine and are quite impressive. Gameplay is much better as well, although a lack of variety makes it poor value for £25.

Your panther stands idly by as you stomach-kick an enemy. (Amiga)

Wandering the streets isn't impressive on either machine, but in terms of gameplay, at least the Amiga game has some! Considering this is meant to be a beat-'em-up, it's a little surprising that on the 64, you can easily get through the levels by either shooting everyone or just running and lumping past them! The graphics are equally poor with blocky, jerkily animated characters, some of which move slower than a dead snail. The Amiga version is considerably better with some attractive backgrounds and a beautifully animated panther. Thankfully the game's also a lot tougher. Here, the beat-'em-up action, although repetitive, at least provides a decent challenge.

MARCH 1990

Gangs on the run. Within a month of the operation starting, John Stevens has been so successful that drug barons decide to kidnap him. And this is where you come in. Armed only with a .357 Magnum and Black Virgin (a black panther, one hastens to explain), you must free John Stevens. There are six levels, with the screens moving by flick-screen fashion on both C64 and Amiga. On the latter, levels are multi-loaded, on the former, it's a single load. There's a fair variety of villains, with the Amiga manual having pictures of them all, but apart from changing hairstyles and clothing, there isn't that much variety. At the end of each level on the Amiga, there's a super baddie who's a bit taller than the normal thugs and requires more hits to kill. Intelligent agents will save some of their bullets just for him.

- Average title screen and high score table, fast multi-load
- Very nicely detailed backdrops and characters, but why the flickering? Animation is only average and variety is limited
- Inoffensive in-game soundtrack, some convincing thumps and groans
 Simple beat-'em-up format that's easy to get into and immediately compelling
Apart from the panther, there's nothing new, and the villains are Fun