Game Review: Brian Jacks Superstar Challenge (ZX Spectrum, Ricochet)

Before I begin this review, and just in case you haven’t heard of Brian Jacks before, in the inlay instructions for Brian Jacks Superstar Challenge, it reads: “Brian Jacks, world famous Judo and TV Superstars champion”.

Two Sided

Brian Jacks Superstar Challenge is split over two sides of the tape.  Each side contains four different challenges.  Should you not like the challenges on one-side of the tape and say, prefer side 2, you can just load that side.  You do not have to complete side 1 to continue onto side 2.  This is clearly due to memory constraints and fitting it into 48K of memory.  The challenges on side 1 of the tape (BJSS1) are Running, Archery, Cycling and Football and on the other side, (BJSS2) containing Swimming, Squats, Canoeing and Arm Dips.

Within the inlay, there is then some short flowing conversation about the game and quoted as saying, “It better be good.”

Graphics

With regards to the loading screen, it’s colourful and rather well drawn.  You can see some of the challenges with a clear marquee of Brian Jacks Superstar Challenge along the top of the screen.

In game, however, the graphics vary in detail from stage to stage, where some looking much better than others.  The animation on the arm dip and squat thrusts challenges (with their gymnasium backdrop) were my favourite ones.

The animation on the swimming was ok, with splashing water as the swim and cycling also of note with the wheels turning as your ride.

Most of the challenges had slow horizontal scrolling but just didn’t give the speed elements that it was trying to emulate.

Playability

Unfortunately, this is the games major failing in my book.  Trying to maintain speed (power) is always a challenge) but that’s part and parcel of what this genre of Track n’ Field style games are like.  What really lets it down though is that in most events, it didn’t seem to matter what keys I pressed (or on the joystick), there seemed to be no response at times.  Some of the challenges aren’t just down to mashing the keyboard up as quickly as you can, but more about timing.  This especially notable to the squat thrusts and arm dip challenges where the instructions do mention timing and skill.

The most playable level was the swimming (where you must press the middle row of the keyboard to come up for air at times).  With the cycling, I only got to third gear for just a fraction of a second each time too.

The football section is truly the worst part of the game, and I’d describe it as truly awful.  I’d say over 90% of the time, it was totally unresponsive and therefore, unplayable.  At one point (after a few goes), I did manage to increase the speed (by pure chance) but even then, the turning was uncontrollable.  It might be myself being cynical here, but I think one of the programmers may have been clock watching on a Friday afternoon and rushing to finish it before home-time.  Anyway, it’s a disaster! To coin a football phrase, it’s an own goal.

Perhaps, I might have been doing something wrong as it does mention in the instructions that they have been kept instructions to a minimum for you to discover.  After playing it a few times, I think I found the answer was really down to poor playability.

Music and Sound

After each stage, a screen is displayed showing the event scores with nine beeping notes of “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

The Original Release

The game was released by Martech software at a whopping £7.95 and subsequently on the Ricochet label.

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