Bargain Bin

From the bargain bins in your high street game shop, to car boot sales and pawn shops, you can find second-hand games cheap as chips all over the place. Our Boys, Brian and Phil, have been out trying to find the best, and worst, of them.

The only rule of Bargain/Bin; if it's under a fiver then it's fair game. If you remember a game you thought was fantastic but the world has forgotten let us know, we will play anything as long as we can find it cheap enough!

The bargain bins of the world can be a cruel master. Diligently hunting for obscure gaming gems we accept that some of the games we find will be, erm... poor. The good games make it all worthwhile, when there are good games that is. Remember; we play these games so that you don't have to!

Flipnic

There have been many videogame pinball conversions but Flipnic is Sony's own take on the game for the PS2. It looks nice too, with a flowing style that shows off the console's graphic capabilities well and reminded us of Fantavision, another classic game and previous bargain on this feature.

Let's start with the tutorial. Did you expect pinball to be explained in seven stages lasting over three minutes each? We didn't. In fact we also didn't expect to feel suicidal after just stage one but that happened too. So abandoning that we took the risk of playing the game untrained.

Flipnic isn't just pinball, as you could never build these tables in the real world. It is supposed to be pinball taken to extremes, but this is unfortunately let down by a physics engine that sometimes feels fine and other times it just stinks. Add to this the interruptions which stop play to tell you you're about to get a multiball or to introduce a sub game leaving your ball hanging over the gutter only to lose it when play resumes.

Let's get back to the fact that it does look good. Many different levels are available in exceptional detail and colour from retro stylings to more futuristic ones. Our favourite was a level that looked like it was built entirely form perspex and lit by many colours of neon. Then there's a breakout style 2D level. It isn't so pretty unfortunately.

Flipnic did engage us for some time as we tried to find the fun, neither of us have played anything quite like it after all. After the charm of the new wore off though, we realised it was just annoying us.

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Mad Maestro

The Guitar Hero of the classical music world? Surely this is what every gamer has been waiting for with baited breath? No? Anyone? You conduct your orchestra to save the music hall in the town but first you need support gained by helping people through the power of music. Music will heal the broken heart, help the fashion show and possibly even stop the lion mauling the clown. However the town loves music which is erm... why they're allowing the music hall to be demolished.

There are easy, hard and child modes in the game, but first we'd like to talk to you about calibration. As the game uses the analogue function of the PS2 controller and requires light, medium and strong taps on the control pad, it's essential to calibrate the controller to your liking, although this is not explained in training.

During gameplay you hit the buttons in the right time, combination and strength to play the tune and gain a high enough rating. This quickly becomes complex and tedious. There is also a tension meter that fills up to show how well you're doing. If the bar fills you enter Angel mode and repeated slips run the risk, all too easy, of entering Devil mode. In easy mode this game is tough enough and it is far too easy to enter angel mode and then subsequently fall into devil mode at the end of a piece. Then no matter how high your tension bar, you'll fail.

Given the graphical style of a children's show it's interesting that there is a children's mode but this is merely a case of keeping time and loads in with a disturbing dancing bear - more suited to Silent Hill with its suggestive thrusting.

There's a reason that classical music and videogaming rarely share the same bed and Mad Maestro quickly shows why. It could have been educational but it's really just annoying. Even if it does have a UFO level!

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Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures

There are plenty of licensed games around, yet even this one was a bit of a surprise find. But then, what better way to end a day at Sea World Adventure Park then to take the kids to the shop and buy them the game of the experience!

The packaging makes it clear that this game is aimed at younger gamers but that wasn't going to stop us playing what could be Ecco The Dolphin in 3D with an Orca killer whale. Even if Shamu is a bit of a wet Orca, he has a Manitee sidekick called Horacio, who is also the Jackanory style narrator. We quickly burried any hopes of stealth penguin hunting or of seal-tossing score attack minigames.

OK, so it's a kids game, we stuck it on hard to make sure it held our attention. The training level went quite well, the controls are nice and kept simple by keeping the gameplay in just two dimensions. On to level one: Race away from the Kraken. We are not sure why this Giant Psychadelic Squid was passing through Shamu's Sea World home but after it had killed us for the fifteenth time we didn't care any more. No squid was getting the better of us! We quit out and started again on easy...

Even then it still took us three attempts. It is so damn unforgiving. The game combines various modes of play as you swim Shamu around collecting crystals and fighting other sea denizens. Pretty graphics and music disguise the enemies in a sea of colour and sound often giving you the feeling that you have little or no control over the action.

What could have been a fun and even educational game for kids is too difficult by far and will leave adults frustrated and children disappointed.

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