Bronx

Copyright : Animagic | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Another beat-em-up in the style of the massive success that was Barbarian hits the CPC though this time not by the now big developers "Palace". The idea of the game is much the same as Barbarian and all those that came before/after it, simply beat the living hell out of your opponent until one of you is no longer able to stand up. Bronx does have a few differences though, read on to find out what these are.

Graphics

Bronx features some pretty detailed stages that do offer much more variety than those found in say, Barbarian, characters also look top notch and animation is very nice indeed. Sadly the game does have a few problems in the speed department and due to this reason the gameplay suffers along with it. There are a few nice touches though, for example as you begin to loose the battle you also loose your armour and find yourself stipped down to your underwear before a knock out is declared, this is a fairly amusing twist on an otherwise average beat-em-up.

Sound

Bronx also features some very melodic and well done music during gameplay, it?s like a cross between the theme from Robocop (CPC) and Golden Axe so it does sound quite cool, if a little slower than the other two. In-game sounds are few and far between and the menu is lifeless but all in all it?s not a bad job at all realy.

Gameplay

Bronx does try to throw a few interesting elements into the single screen 2D beat-em-up style that bombarded classic computers such as the CPC/C64 in the early years by adding some graphical twists and making a fairly nice front end for the game itself. Sadly the game plays extremely slowly and you often can?t even get a single punch in without being hit by the computer in record time, controls are therefore a nightmare for the first couple of tries and take some time to get to grips with.

The biggest problem in the game is the speed at which it runs, punching the living hell out of your best friend or brother in a computer game is a nice experience but not so great when it takes a few hours to knock someone out. Obviously the game gets repetitive but lucky for us it isn?t realy that big a game, only 6 levels to fight through.

There are better beat-em-ups on the CPC and we certainly don?t recommend you start with this one, the first choice by every reviewer has got to be the Palace classic "Barbarian" but if you want something different then this might be worth a shot, it won?t impress you much but at least you will have tried it.