Operation Hormuz Commodore 64 game

OPERATION HORMUZ Again and Again, C64 £9.99 cassette

Money makes the world go round, da da da, tra la la... Actually, that's not right. Nope, it's not money—it's oil. And I don't mean that stuff that comes out of the pores on your face, either. What we're talking about here is that thick sticky stuff.

MIG 21 JET GAME YEAH ▲ Looks like there's a GULF between you and success in this game (geddit? Oh, go away, then)

CORDO I reckon even I could be a pilot if flying a plane was as easy as this. All you have to do is wiggle the controls a bit, and your McDonnell Douglas goes swooping down towards the ground, performing acrobatic flying tricks, generally defying gravity and every G-force in the book. This is definitely no serious flying sim—unfortunately, it's not much of a shoot 'em up either. The whole thing is just a matter of flying over a pretty samey landscape, avoiding pretty pathetic enemy fire, and then doing the same thing again and again (geddit?). All this amounts to is the equivalent of a mediocre budget game - it certainly isn't worth ten quid. Oh, and I didn't like the politics behind it, either. Hey! Don't talk to me about Operation Hormuz! (c/o Cryptic 'n' Crap Captions Inc)

MISSILE BASE → CARRIER DESTROYED SCORE 888838 HIGH 888888 HARRIERS 1 WOTCHA! THE NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PILOTECT THE INNOCENT! INIT

They just happen to have a lot of oil in the Middle East. According to this particular scenario, 7 terrorist missile bases are sending MIG 21 enemy aircraft out to the drilling sites and attempting to destroy them. Forget about the UN, negotiations, treaties, and all that—the US has decided to take those bases out, and you're the lucky, lucky guy in charge.

You've got three fighters, and your basic mission is to fly from your carrier to the enemy bases and destroy them before meeting up with your carrier again. Thing is, you've got to protect your carrier from Exocet missiles as well, so it's a matter of juggling control of your four different weapons (cannon, bombs, air-to-air, and air-to-ship missiles) and a protective flare to keep the mission alive. Easy.

According to all the info, this is supposed to be a 'realistic and highly detailed simulation'. Simulation, my foot! What we're talking about here is a pretty basic shoot 'em up with one or two slightly technical bits thrown in. And when I say technical, I mean looping clockwise or anti-clockwise, and that's it. I wouldn't mind so much if the shoot 'em up part of it was worth sitting a couple of hours in front of the monitor for, but it's not. All we have here is a very routine, repetitive, and not particularly interesting blast. Even at a budget price, I'd think twice before coughing up for this.

PRESENTATION 50% Definable keyboard option and high score table. GRAPHICS 55% Smooth scrolling and easy maneuverable sprites. Apart from that, nothing fancy. SOUND 52% Pleasant title tune and a few blip, blip, fut, fut, firing effects. HOOKABILITY 49% There's curiosity value, but right from the start, there's not enough going on to really hook. LASTABILITY 29% Far too simplistic and repetitive to muster any lasting interest. OVERALL 38% Samey, repetitive, and very basic for what's supposed to be a simulation.

ZZAP! MARCH 1989 170