Games Inbox: What was the best ZX Spectrum game?

The Tuesday letters page recommends Screamer despite the relatively high price, as one reader laments the rising cost of amiibo.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Full Spectrum warrior
Really enjoyed the Reader’s Feature at the weekend about Ant Attack and I agree it was a classic that needs more recognition today. It’s definitely one of the best games on the Spectrum but it had me thinking about what my actual favourite is.

I’d say Elite, Chuckie Egg, Knight Lore, and School Daze are all up there, but I think my favourite might be The Great Escape. Another great isometric game but so complicated for Sir Clive’s tiny little 48K monster.

There’s not really anything like it nowadays, which is probably true for most of the games I’ve listed. I’m still upset there isn’t a modern Elite game on consoles and stuff like Knight Lore… I guess modern action adventures are in the same area but nothing has ever been quite the same since all these old UK developers gave up the ghost.
Franky

Back to front
We wall knew something funny was going on with Resident Evil Requiem’s story and ending and I think it’s just as simple as they were running out of time to make it out for the 30th anniversary. It’s such a shame because for the first six or eight hours of the game are pretty much perfect, then it slowly bleeds out.

It’s not enough to ruin the game or anything but when you get that close to nailing it, it feels really frustrating. I think it’s too much to hope for a director’s cut that retcons things but maybe next time Capcom should consider making the games backwards – starting with the final scenes and boss battles and working back from there.

Also, I cannot believe it’s not relatively easy to find someone in Japan that’s good at making boss battles. There must be ex-Treasure people and the like everywhere. It’s weird that’s been a problem with the series basically from the beginning.
Focus

The Legend of Elden Ring
Video game movies are not something I’d normally get excited about but it looks like Elden Ring could be the one to break the curse. I know they’ve been getting better lately but they’re still not actually good, but I hope that this could be the one, especially if Alex Garland is a fan.

The set footage isn’t much to go on but it does look exactly like the game so that’s got to be worth something, even if it is a fairly easy thing to recreate at that scale. It sounds like it and the Zelda movie might come out at more or less the same time, which is going to be interesting.

I imagine to ordinary movie reviewers they might seem very similar concepts, but I can guess which one is going to come out better – and it’s not the one by Nintendo.
Bluek

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Rising prices
I have just bought the Mario & Luma amiibo, which is my first amiibo I have bought with the new higher prices. I have attached a couple of photos so readers can compare their size with the cheaper amiibo. The Mario & Luma amiibo cost me £24.99 including delivery, the Super Mario amiibo on its own cost £12.99 and the Tom Nook one cost me £10.99.

As you can see, the packaging for the Luma amiibo is quite a bit bigger than the lower priced amiibo. I have included a Switch game in the photo so people have an idea how big the amiibo are. I bought the new amiibo as I am a big fan of Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2.

I will be more selective of what amiibo I buy in future, because of the new higher prices. I hope the amiibo for Resident Evil Requiem are not £24.99 each, as that will be £50 to own them! Nearly as much as purchasing the game!
Andrew J.

GC: The prices are shocking but we’ve got to admit, that Mario & Luma one is nice.

Too much money
That is very surprising to find that Take-Two has laid off their whole AI team. You would’ve thought they would’ve kept it going just to tick a box when attracting investors, but maybe they really don’t need the money.

If that is the case, and it’s not just that the boss has a pet hate, I wish we’d see this in other things they do. Like wasting money on weird ideas and indie games. But I can’t remember the last time Take-Two published anything that wasn’t just a sports game or something from Rockstar Games.

They might not need an AI department but you always need new and interesting games. Heck, I’d settle for a new Bioshock if nothing else.
Danson

Man attic
After making an obvious and cheap gag about the size of the PS5 Pro yesterday, I felt it only fair to show you can fit these modern consoles in quite easily under the TV and while big don’t quite deserve the reputation they seem to have.

This modest space, an attic conversion, has a PS4 Pro, PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X, plug tidy box behind the Series X, Switch 2 behind the TV, PlayStation VR 2 in a case behind some classic gaming tat and all the controllers, games and charging leads in the box. The TV stand was £50 five years ago from Argos.

I will say though both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 look better stood up but I can’t imagine that’s the most convenient why for most to store them. So for me make the PlayStation 6 and Nextbox with horizontal as the design focus.
Simundo

Luck of the draw
I don’t know if it’s on sale or if it’s that dynamic pricing but I got Astro Bot off the PlayStation Store on Saturday for £32.99.

It’s as good as everyone says it is. Been a while since I’ve enjoyed a game this much. Holds up very well against Super Mario Odyssey.
Tom Thomas

GC: We think it’s dynamic pricing (which is disgusting) as it’s £42.59 for us, at a 29% discount.

A real scream
I bought Screamer over the weekend, as I love arcade racers and I’ve been loving it. My only issue with gameplay was the twin stick turning, which I just couldn’t get the hang of. But thankfully you can map both sticks just to the left stick and it was a gamechanger, it feels much more natural. So if anyone is put off by the controls you can change them.

There’s a lot of mechanics to learn, which offers strategy to the racing, but another nice touch is in private matches or split-screen you can turn off anything that others feel complicated and just have a standard racer, which is cool.

The biggest problem is the price. £60 is a lot for a racer which is trying something new and I feel it’s putting a lot off. I managed to pay for half of it with Microsoft Points, so it only cost me £30. I think it should have been £40 and it looks like the game is suffering because of it, which is a shame as it’s up there with Split/Second: Velocity and Blur for me.
Rob

GC: We agree entirely. It’s a great game but the price is a big ask for an IP most people have never heard of.

Inbox also-rans
That Jesus: The Journey game has got to be some kind of failed superhero game they found the code for or something. Like you said, I don’t see how this stuff gets on PlayStation Store in the first place. Can I just upload some pirated ROMs and Sony will leave them up for six months until they realise what they are?
Campbell

Never heard of the dude that died but Double Dragon was always a favourite of mine when growing. So kudos to Yoshihisa Kishimoto and shame he went so relatively young.
sniperboy

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

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