Beach-Head II — The Dictator Strikes Back!

BEACH HEAD II
US Gold 1985

CONTROLS : Keyboard, Kempston, Cursor
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AIM : The evil dictator from BEACH HEAD I, the Dragon, has rebuilt his
army and is challenging the Allies' power in the Pacific once again.
Stryker, the Allies' best commander, leads the attack on the dictator's
stronghold to kill him...

GAMEPLAY : You can play BHII as either the Allies or the Dragon in the
one player game, or play head-to-head in the two-player version. There
are a number of levels, all of which you must win to capture the
stronghold / defeat the Allied attack.

1. Parachute Assault -
Allied troops are airdropped into the battle zone from a
helicopter. Pressing fire drops a soldier, but if the helicopter is
too low for the chute to open, the soldier will not live to tell the
tale! On landing, the soldiers make a dash for the nearest wall, but
they must brave machine-gun fire from a gun turret controlled by the
Dragon. However, the machine gunner is hampered by the fact that it
takes time for him to react and turn the gun on the troops.

2. Frontal Attack -
Once all the men are hiding behind the walls at the top they have
to make their way to the bottom of the screen, avoiding the gunfire. The
edges of the walls flash in a cycle along the edge of the line. Pressing
fire brings a man out, and you must control him as he runs down to the
next section of wall. From the third wall, nearest the gun turret, the
troops must be manoeuvred to the bottom of the screen. The control method
is the same as before, except that pressing fire lobs a grenade roughly
in the direction of the gun turret - you might get lucky and destroy it.
Pressing fire twice when you select a wall sends down a computer-
controlled soldier who is useful as a decoy!


3. Protect Hostages -
You must protect a group of hostages from the now-desperate enemy
forces. The Allies have captured a gun turret which can be used against
the enemy attacks. The hostages run across the screen from left to right
and have to face four types of enemy attack: a soldier drops stones from
the top of the wall the hostages have to walk beneath; a tanks rolls on
from the right and squashes anything in its path; an armoured car drives
from the left, firing a machine gun; and enemy troops lay mines, popping
up out of trapdoors (!) to lay them. All of these obstacles can be shot
by your turret to safeguard the hostages' passage. If you shoot a hostage
by mistake it only stuns him, but this could give the enemy the
opportunity to kill him.

4. Evacuate Hostages -
Having rescued the hostages, you must ferry them to safety in four
helicopters that fly over a vertically-scrolling landscape. Tanks and
guns placed on the terrain try to shoot your 'copters down; the
difficulty of the terrain is decided by the Dragon before this section
starts.

5. Showdown -
Commander Stryker gets to meet the Dragon in face-to-face combat.
The two opponents stand opposite each other on parallel platforms on
either side of a river. The idea is to hit the other man with poonta
sticks - javelins, in effect - until he falls into the water. Each time
a combatant is hit three times he takes a fall and there are five
rounds to be fought before the game is won - or lost.

COMMENTS : "A pretty simple and boring game."
RATING : 74% (CRASH #24, January 1986)

NOW : A rather poor game which is not much fun to play, as well as
being somewhat bizarre towards the end. I wonder how the Gulf War would
have ended if George Bush had had to hurl poonta sticks at Saddam
Hussein?
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KEYS : Redefinable