S.I.M.I.S. – By MD Games

This title is a really nice homebrew for the Lynx that contains 5 different games that make up the letters of the name. The first S stands for Snakebyte, a full colour version of the classic Nokia mobile phone game Snake we all played to death on our classic 3210s. Then we have the first I, this stands for Invaders – a very playable version of the vintage Taito arcade game. M is next with Mines and in this simple game you have to try and move around for as long as possible without hitting a hidden mine. The second I is for Isolation, I found myself playing this game the most when I first purchased this title. The idea is to try and block off your opponent by choosing squares on a board, very addictive and engaging despite being relatively simple. And at the end we actually don’t have another game as this S stands for Specials! This is a collection of rather impressive demos that you can play around with. These include a demonstration engine for Wolfenstein 3D, Marble Madness, and Dungeon Master. Overall this is a great package and just the kind of thing I love seeing on the Lynx, a collection of simple but addictive games that will keep you coming back time after time. This is well worth hunting down and adding to your collection!

8/10

 Scrapyard Dog – By Atari

This game was originally Atari’s answer to Super Mario Bros. on their rival 7800 console and this Lynx version rather than being a straight port is an enhanced version of that game. The main differences to the 7800 game come in better level designs and the removal of the main characters stupid big nose! It’s nice to see that developers do sometimes listen to what people say about their games. Scrapyard Dog features some corny plot about your dog being captured but apart from that its pretty much a Super Mario clone all the way. Jumping on enemies to kill them or throwing cans at them (as opposed to fireballs), grabbing bonuses and finding those secret warps. Fans of SMB will certainly feel right at home here. In the graphics department this game is all very cute but lacks polish and the usually plinky plonky tunes you find in platformers are all present and correct. Maybe I am being a little harsh on the rating I give this due to my hatred of the genre so if you are a huge platformers mark you can probably add a couple of points.

6/10

 Shadow Of The Beast – By Psygnosis

Shadow Of The Beast was without doubt the first game to really show the power of the Commodore Amiga and its technical superiority over the Atari ST. That said it was more of a demo than an actual game and there really wasn’t that much to it. Thankfully when Psygnosis choose to port the game over to the Lynx they made a number of changes for the better. This arcade adventure still looks absolutely stunning with its multiple layers of parallax scrolling, faultless animation and imaginative enemies. It also still sounds fantastic with some of the most atmospheric music you will ever hear in a video game. Only it now plays much better too, this Lynx version is far deeper than the Amiga game with much bigger levels and a lot more to actually do. In summary the Lynx version of Shadow Of The Beast is easily one of the most technically impressive games for the machine and also one of the best examples of it genre for the handheld console too.

8/10

 Shanghai – By Mediagenic

The first interesting thing about this game is that its the only Lynx game that was released by Atari 3rd party stalwarts Activision under the name Mediagenic, which was what they were calling themselves at that time before changing their name back a few years later. It's a shame they never did any more games for the portable Atari not just because it would have been great to see games like Pitfall, River Raid and Ghostbusters on the Lynx but also because Shanghai is one of the best games on the machine. A conversion of the ST, Amiga and PC game of the same name its basically just the highly popular Japanese board game mah-jong with a few minor differences. For those people who have somehow never encountered mah-jong in any form it’s an ancient tile game that involves you matching up pairs and trying to clear the board in the best time. The tiles are stacked in formations and you can only match and remove tiles if they are not blocked by another tile from the left or right. As the tiles are also stacked its wise to try and uncover the tiles you can't see as soon as you can. The tiles are stacked randomly so sometimes its not even possible to complete a board. Features unique to Shanghai compared to previous incarnations of the game were a simpler style western tile set along side the original one, a hint option, selection of soundtracks and best of all a wonderful selection of different tile layouts all based on and resembling different animals such as bear, butterfly, fish and turtle. The graphics are really clear and do the job perfectly, the sound is great with some suitable tunes and effects but its the gameplay that really matters on this game and I can safely say that Shanghai is THE most addictive game I have ever played! If there is a game more perfectly suited to a handheld then I don't what it is!

10/10

 Simpsons Digitized Sound Player – By Atari

This is an old demo by Atari that was recently found on the hard drive of a computer owned by Curt Vendel of the Atari museum. It contains 21 speech samples taken from The Simpsons that take up 256k of ROM, bigger than many of the released Lynx games! There is a nice title screen to start with and then just a list of what you can play. What is strange is the phrases and things they chose to sample, well known Simpsons sound bites like “Eat my shorts!”, “Mmmm Donuts” and “Don’t have a cow man!” are notable by their absence. Maybe Atari took the ones used from just one episode, who knows? I am guessing that this demo was made to test the sound driver used for games like Awesome Golf, STUN Runner and Lemmings that contain a lot of samples speech. Mikey, the Lynx sound chip, has 4 PCM channels that were designed to make the playback of digitised sound very easy. A few people in the community have actually had this put onto a cart so there are a few floating around for hardcore collectors but it can also be tried out on a flashcard or with Handy. It remains just an interesting curio though and not really something worth bothering with for the more casual Lynx fan.

4/10

 Sokomania – By MW Software

I believe this homebrew title was based on an old game called Sokoban but I haven’t played that game so can't confirm how close this Lynx puzzler is to it. The game starts off with a nice presentation screen and some cool music using Duranik's great MOD player, a good start. Unfortunately it goes a bit downhill from here, once you are into the game its self you are presented with a very simple representation of a top viewed warehouse. The idea is to move the worker (a red blob) around the irregular space trying to push the boxes (brown blocks) into the loading zone (blue blobs) however this isn't as easy as it sounds as walls, corners and other boxes get in the way. Get yourself or one of the boxes stuck and you have to start all over again, so you really need to work out a strategy to play it. It reminded me a bit in ways of Diam Jag on the Jaguar CD but only far more frustrating. This is a rock hard game that is not only let down by the insane difficulty but also its simple graphics and unbelievably awful in-game music, which thankfully can be turned off, this is a real shame considering how good the title tune is. Overall a pretty poor game that I would only recommend to die hard puzzlers.

4/10

 Solitaire Card Games – By Karri

Ah that old Microsoft Windows favourite Solitaire, the favourite game of office workers everywhere. Well this homebrew for the Lynx contains 6 different versions of the classic card game; Free Cell, Klondike, Klondike 3 Draw and 3 versions of Spider. Holding all these little games together is a wonderfully designed menu system that lets you enter you name, look at the high scores, view the credits in a storybook style and even zoom in on a digitised jukebox to select what music you want from a selection of rock ‘n’ roll classics like Johnny B. Goode and Tutti Frutti. I really wanted to love this game, especially after the good start, but found the actual games quite difficult to play. The problem is that its really hard to see what all the cards actually are. When you move your cursor over them it zooms in and enlarges them but this just makes it more difficult to see what is around them. I will admit that after playing for a while I did get used to it but it’s hardly ideal. So this game definitely loses a lot of points in the graphics department that are somewhat made up by the cool music. Overall this title was an excellent idea that just didn’t quite come off, games like this should be far more intuitive than this title is.

6/10

 Steel Talons – By Atari

When it comes to arcade conversions we all know that the Lynx is an absolute boss. Through it’s life the Lynx continued to prove it was more than capable of recreating any game, like STUN Runner, Steel Talons is one of those games that impresses more than others. It uses a full polygonal 3D engine to recreate this brilliant helicopter combat game with great aplomb. You control an armed chopper through a series of dangerous missions using your homing missiles and guns to destroy a host of both air and ground based targets. You are also required to be adept at flying your craft too as you sometimes have to make it through tight ravines, mountain ranges and avoid flurries of enemy fire. Before each level the missions are explained to you and with the use of a handy map you can plan out your strategy. Steel Talons really does look superb, the 3D engine is both smooth and fast. It’s no slouch when it comes to the sound either with loads of digitised speech to help guide you through the game. One of the most common titles released for the Lynx there really is no excuse not to have this in your collection.

9/10

 STUN Runner – By Atari

This Lynx title is not only a great arcade conversion but also the best commercial example of what the Lynx could really do! STUN (Secret Tunnel Underground Network) Runner was 3D polygon based coin-op by Atari that used a custom cabinet and was a game that nobody thought could ever be converted to a home console or computer. Domark converted it to the home computers and it was woeful, the best looking version on the ST was great until it moved - it was so slow and the speed of the original game was one of its selling points. However Atari choose to convert the game to the Lynx themselves, a machine that was already proving its power with games like Blue Lightning, and made a few subtle changes. The arcade's pure 3D polygon visuals were replaced with a mix of polys, scaled sprites and detailed backdrops and the effect is astonishing! The first game I have ever played that made my jaw drop like that I really can't explain how graphically amazing this game is! The idea of the game is to race through the underground tunnels and along speedways to each of the checkpoints within the required time limit. Your Runner can spin round the tunnels a full 360 degrees with enough speed that can only be controlled by careful driving. There are also plenty of other racers along the way some can be blasted off the track with your handy weapon whilst others must be avoided as they are indestructible. Your vehicle is also equipped with shields that are bumped off when you hit things, take a hit without them and it slows you right down, bad news in this game. Armour is replaced upon completion of levels but how much depends on your time! Along the way you can also hit boosters for extra insane speed and grab shockwaves which destroy all opponents in your path! Like Roadblasters you can select level warps too to skip sections and grab higher points and some levels even have some secrets hidden in the tunnels too! As well as the stunning speed and visuals this title also features some brilliant sound too from the superb title tune to the array of sampled speech taken direct from the coin-op. This game is an essential purchase for any Lynx owner and a game you simply must have even if just to show what this little baby can do! WELCOME STUN RUNNER!

10/10

 Super Asteroids & Missile Command – By Atari

The very last commercial releases for the Lynx this is also one of its very best. A double game card featuring updated versions of 2 of Atari’s all-time classic arcade games: Asteroids and Missile Command. So first up on this card is Super Asteroids, this is very similar a game released by Atari for their ST computer called Asteroids Deluxe. The basic gameplay is exactly the same, to rid each level of the Asteroids by shooting them into smaller pieces until they disappear. Your craft can still thrust and the screen still wraps around but you no longer have a hyperspace. Your ship is now equipped with a shield though, that is represented by an energy bar at the side of the screen. Once this has depleted you lose a life and you have 3 of these to start with. Another new feature is the addition of power-ups, these are represented by big glowing stars and can arm you with a better weapon or set off a smart bomb among other things. There is also more than one type of UFO in this version, some being harder to kill than others. While not a massive update Super Asteroids provides a nice variation on the classic and is great fun to play too.

And on to the second game on this double game card, called simply Missile Command I am not sure why it’s not Super Missile Command as it’s quite a big update on the classic. Like Super Asteroids the basic gameplay is exactly the same, you must protect the cities and shoot the missiles out the sky with your 3 bases. However this update changes the original gameplay slightly. In the arcade version you had a fire button for each base while on the Lynx one it simply selects the base nearest to where you are shooting and this works really well. Also the bonus UFOs from the original game are now more advanced and actually try to attack you! The biggest addition to this Lynx iteration is the special weapons, you can earn money instead of score and this can be spent in the shops you get at the end of each series of stages. These mega weapons range from smart bombs and cluster bombs to homing missiles and speed shots. Some of these are immense and its incredibly fun watching the destruction they cause! Super Asteroids was good but Missile Command is a fantastic update of, in my opinion, one of the greatest games ever made and worth buying this title for alone!

10/10

 Super Off-Road – By Telegames

Originally a Tradewest / Leland arcade game it was converted to the Lynx by 3rd party Atari stalwarts Telegames and offers a very good representation of the original. The spiritual successor to Atari’s Super Sprint, Super Off Road is a 4-player racing game with a kind of forced isometric perspective. It features many of the same gameplay principles as Atari’s iconic game including power-ups, money, up to 3-player gameplay and race ceremonies too. The one addition though, thanks to the viewpoint, is the track features likes ramps, hills, water holes and barriers. This Lynx version is pretty much identical to the coin-op in most ways but now instead of seeing the whole track at once the screen is slightly zoomed in to your vehicle and scrolls as you drive. The only disadvantage to this is that it takes a few goes to learn the tracks. Music plays throughout the game, along side sound effects, and graphically it’s pretty good too. The biggest downfall of Super Off-Road is that once you have got your vehicle up to spec its incredibly easy to win each race meaning you might get a bit bored of it. All on all though it’s a nice addition to the Lynx library and great in multi-player.

7/10

 Super Skweek – By Loriciel

The only released game by French company Loriciel (they had several unreleased titles) Super Skweek is the wonderful sequel to equally mad Skweek, a game that originally appeared on the Atari ST and Amiga. It is actually quite hard to describe and even define this game but in essence I suppose it’s a puzzler. You control the cute fluffy Skweek who must enter each of the 250+ levels and turn all the blue tiles pink! You do this by simply walking over them but this is not as easy as it sounds. There are squares that break when you walk over them, some that are one way, others that explode and just to make life even harder there are various cute foes trying to kill you! Thankfully you can also shoot them as well as collect power-ups that appear on the play field. These include multi-direction shots, paint shots to colour squares, speed-ups, invincibility and extra time. When you shoot baddies they also leave behind coins that can be used in shops to buy these different power-ups. You have limited lives but each level does have a password so you can restart where you left off. There is also a brilliant random level selector that lets you experience some of the more difficult stages. Super Skweek is an amazingly playable game that is cute beyond belief and offers so much gameplay it’s unreal. I would go as far to say this one of the best games on the Lynx and a real hidden gem in the system’s already excellent catalogue!

9/10

 Switchblade II – By Gremlin

The Lynx didn’t get a lot of love from 3rd party publishers and sadly this was the only game released for the machine by legendary UK software house Gremlin Graphics. This is a conversion of the incredibly popular ST & Amiga computer game and in fact the only console version of the game too! It is also a very good translation too, it’s almost identical in every way to the Atari ST version! Switchblade II is a platformer with fighting elements taking play in a futuristic almost steam punk looking world. You are faced with some story about needing to save the world as usual but you don’t need to take any notice of that. Despite being a western game you could easily be fooled into thinking it was Japanese because of its manga stylings. Your main character starts off with just a blade to defeat the cyborg enemies but you can soon power-up to a host of weapons including guns, missiles and even flame-throwers. Among the items you can pick up are coins that can be saved up to spend in shops where the very best weapons are available. Switchblade II looks fantastic and seems to get better as the game goes on, sadly it’s really lacking in the sound department. There is a criminal lack of in-game music and just some weedy sound effects. My only small criticism of the game that it’s fairly easy to finish but that said you will have a lot of fun doing so!

8/10

 T-Tris – By Bastian Schick

In case you haven't already guessed by the name this is Tetris, it was the game that helped the Gameboy destroy the Lynx in the handheld wars so how does it fare on the technically superior machine? Well truth be told it’s a pretty average effort really that just leaves you feeling rather disappointed. The graphics are really bland and un-interesting, there is no music and there are a few control issues that will really piss you off. The worst of this is that instead of down moving your block quicker it just sends it straight to the bottom, this is really annoying if you do it by mistake. My other major issue was that that sometimes you seem to get the same shape far more times than any other and you can even see this as it records how many times you get each shape! I did quite like the digitised sound effects though, especially the sample of the door noise from Star Trek. Shame there wasn’t more of these though. This game was clearly put out totally unfinished and it’s a real shame because we all know that Tetris is one of the best games ever created.

6/10

 Todd’s Adventures In Slime World – By Epyx

This game, better known as simply Slime World, holds a very special place in the Lynx library as it offers the largest ComLynx in the console’s catalogue. You can hook up an amazing 8 Lynxes to play this great arcade adventure from the system’s creators Epyx, although we wish you luck finding 7 other people with a Lynx and a copy of this game to play with! It’s a grand arcade adventure set in an alien world where your mission is to collect the parts needed to repair your crashed spacecraft. The main theme of the game, as you can probably guess, is the copious amounts of slime. It drips from everywhere and if you get covered in too much of it then it can kill you! Thankfully the levels are littered with little pools of water that can be used to wash yourself down, I love the little animation when Todd does this. The levels scroll in every direction and mostly take place in cramped underground caverns. There are also enemies in this subterranean world who thankfully be disposed of quite easily with your slime gun. Look out for any objects that might help you on your quest too, you never know what you might find! Slime World looks fantastic with some excellent animation and so much attention to detail, the cut-scenes are of particular note. The sound isn’t so strong with average music and sound effects but you won’t be too bothered by it. Slime World is a must have game for arcade adventure fans, a genre the Lynx seems to thrive in.

8/10

 Toki – By Atari / Fabtek

While Toki was not the most widely known arcade game it received a number of impressive conversion to the home formats. Just beating out the ST / Amiga and Megadrive versions this handheld conversion for the Lynx is widely regarded as the best one. The basic plot of the game involves some evil wizard turning a prince into an ape and stealing away his princess. You control our heroic primate as he tries to make his way through the levels and rescue her. Toki is a platform game where you can spit fireballs at your enemies as well as jump on some of them. You can aim your shot in any direction which is very useful as you are attacked from all directions, Toki sure is a very tough game. Thankfully you can collect various power-ups to help you on your quest as well as coins to increase your score. The levels in this game are beautifully designed and also feature some seriously huge bosses that take up more than a screen! With its wonderful visuals, great music and tight gameplay Toki has to be one of the best platformers available for the Lynx and a must have for fans of the genre.

8/10

 Tournament Cyberball – By Atari

Tournament Cyberball is a perfect example of a game that sounds great on paper but doesn’t actually work as a game. What is stranger is that this title was a very successful arcade game and a sequel to the equally popular Cyberball coin-op. It is certainly no fault of the Lynx that this game doesn’t work as I don’t think the original game was very good either. Basically this is a futuristic take on American football where the players are replaced with robots and the ball becomes an exploding bomb! The idea is to try and make your plays and score before the ball blows up. Apart from these unique features the rest of the game pretty much follows all the rules and features of gridiron. The biggest problem with this game is that it plays far to slowly to ever raise any kind of excitement. You would think that with an exploding ball the urgency would be raised somewhat but no. The small graphics look pretty decent on the Lynx screen and there is some really nice speech too. I just can’t see anyone playing this long enough to get any real enjoyment out of it.

4/10

 Turbo Sub – By Atari

At first glances you would think this is an Afterburner clone but you would be wrong, this first person shooter (although it originally wasn't, early screenshots showed it as third person like Afterburner!) only takes place in the air for short parts of the game, all the rest is underwater. It is actually more reminiscent of another Sega game - Space Harrier. The plot is your usual aliens are attacking the earth nonsense and not worth reading, all you need to know is that it’s your job to kill them! As I’ve said this game is split into 2 parts, in the air and underwater. You always start each level in the air and this part plays and looks much a cross between the 2 Sega games, you are flying like Afterburner but the enemies are more like Space Harrier with giant heads who blow flames at you! When the alarm sounds its time to dive underwater and the game becomes much more interesting. Its a bit slower but just as hectic as tons of different sea based aliens try to blast you away. What makes it harder though is that there are things you can smash into too like pillars, rocks and plants (much like Space Harrier) and if you crash you lose a life. In the aquatic world there are also gems that you can collect and these can be traded in for better weapons, lives and smart bombs at the end of level shops. At the end of each level there is also a huge boss to contend with too (again like S.H.) and this is where the bombs come in useful. This is not an easy game, I’ve never finished it, but does have a good learning curve and enough action to keep you playing. There are cool intro screens with a great tune and in-game some very noisy sound effects coupled with some great graphics that really use the Lynx's scaling abilities to the max.

8/10

 Ultimate Chess Challenge – By Telegames

Licensed from Fidelity who, at the time, were producing one of the most powerful chess computers in the world you won’t find a more realistic chess game on any console from this era. Even on its easiest setting UCC provides a stern challenge and I would dread to think how quickly I would get beaten on the hardest setting! There are plenty of options to customise your game including a very welcome multi-player mode that will give you a nice break from the brutal CPU! There are also 2 different ways that you can view the game itself, a really nice looking 3D perspective and a traditional simplified top down view. If you are a fan of the sport of the masters then you are going to absolutely love this, if you are not then this title is not going to convert you.

7/10