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SHORT LIST 13 - October 1997

SATURN BOMBERMAN

The multi-player bomb-dropping larks of Bomberman have long been a source of joy to socially-minded gamers without access to a network of PCs, and the stakes have been upped dramatically with this new Saturn version, which enables up to 10 players to join in the explosives-based fun. And of course, getting 10 people crowded around one TV all at once means you have to play Twister just to get to see the screen, so it's two games in one.

From Sega for Saturn, £40

 

BLAST CORPS

Nintendo's latest attempt to get their hands on all the money in the world and keep it for themselves sees you, some gullible sap, trying to avert nuclear disaster at the hands of a runaway missile truck, by the simple expedient of smashing everything in its path to rubble with a variety of building-wrecking vehicles. Dumper trucks, rocket launchers, monster bikes with huge chainsaws on the front and giant robots who simply jump on everything are all at your disposal, and the whole thing's madly entertaining until it's over, which, distressingly, will be within two or three days of you spending £60 on it.

From Nintendo for N64, £60

 

CARMAGEDDON

Now that all the blood-and-guts hype has died down, this controversial road-rage shocker (now in New Improved kiddie-friendly mode, where your Mad Max supercar mows down zombies in splattery showers of green gunk rather than drenching the road in the blood of innocent pedestrians as previously) has to survive on its qualities as a game. Luckily they're pretty solid, and for once there's some substance under all the squishy offal - if car-racing videogames were films, this would be Reservoir Dogs rather than from Dusk Till Dawn. Phew.

From SCI for PC, £35

 

BUBBLE BOBBLE 2

Enjoy the tried-and-tested gameplay of retro games, but don't want the sad-nostalgic stigma that comes with them? Triumph over adversity, then, with this all-dressed-up-and-nowhere-to-go remake of the baby dinosaur-based bubble-blowing arcade classic. Pretty much identical in design to the 15-year-old original, but tarted up with lovely graphics and all the usual cosmetics, it's a brainless bubblegum riot. Once again, you win.

From Virgin for Playstation, £35

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