Biggles

Copyright : Mirrorsoft | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Just about everybody should have heard about the adventures of Biggles at school or being told by an aging parent or two, named after a war plane set in World War II you are one of the countries last hopes of survival and the best the army has. In this computer adaptation of the books you will be fighting oncoming German war planes, escaping capture by the German forces and generally kicking some butt for your country.

Graphics

Biggles looks and feels much the same as the old dog fight games that arrived free of charge with the Atari 2600 series of consoles but is far better in many ways than any 2600 game. Biggles is presented in all it?s glory with some superb colours, nicely drawn backgrounds and enough enemy planes to keep you occupied for more than enough time to gain some serious points. It takes the art of dog-fighting a little further by not forcing you to endure level after level of shoot-em-up action, you will be captured by the German forces should you be shot out of the skies and forced to escape the roof tops before the guard sees you (see screen grab 2) and then you can take advantage and re-stock on grenades and missiles for Biggles while all the time avoiding being shot by those evil people who lurk around the corner. Given the time this game was released I doubt it could have been done any better and would personally like to take my hat off to Mirrorsoft for such as well designed game.

Sound

The sound is also on top form with some great introduction music at the front of the game (well and truly worth listening to rather than hitting fire as soon as the game loads) and the in-game sound effects themselves are again on top form with everything from gun shots, air shots, explosions, alarms and more you simply won?t find better in a game as early as this one. Mirrorsoft once again deliver the goods to all fans of the books (in case you are wondering I have never actually sat down and read an entire book but found the game highly entertaining).

Gameplay

Gameplay is superb, it might not hold up much today but back in 1986 the shear thought of being able to blow away your enemy while sitting behind the pilot seat of one of the most famous war planes was enough to sell this game on it?s own. Remember we told you that you are not just shooting things out of the sky, well this works nicely and helps to give the game that little bit more kick and excitement as you try and evade the enemy and collect as many power-ups for your plane as possible.
We will say this though, the game is far from being a challenge. If you rest Biggles in the center of the screen to the left then you will not be attacked by any oncoming war planes (they will completely fly around you) but you will still need to keep an eye on the war guns that lay on the ground beneath you. This is something that could have been improved to make the game that little bit more difficult, not that we are saying it?s mega easy to complete or anything but we are sure that those that play shoot-em-up games by nature will probably complete this game within an hour.
As the Biggles series is unlikely to get another run of computer games on any platform it might very well be worth checking this aging CPC classic out and get yourself behind the pilots seat, grab this game now.