Critical reception

Reviews

Period magazine scores, review quotes, and retrospective assessments. MacLean titles earned Gold Medals consistently - Zzap!64 gave IK+ 97%.

Dropzone box art - yellow and red cover with spaceman in space
Dropzone (1984/1985) — Zzap!64 Gold Medal 95%

Dropzone (1984 / 1985)

Zzap!64 Gold Medal
95%
Zzap!64 Issue 3, July 1985
"Graphically it's superb, sonically it's amazing, and playability is on a par with all the best arcade machines around today... Dropzone is an absolute gem of a game."
Zzap!64 Issue 3 (July 1985), accessed via zzap64.co.uk archive
Computer and Video Games, May 1985
"One of the finest Atari titles available." Praised the graphics and technical execution.
Computer and Video Games, May 1985 - via Wikipedia: Dropzone
8.7/10
Lemon64 Community Rating
"No music, but lots of neat little effects." Widely cited as one of the best Defender variants ever written.
Lemon64 community reviews, lemon64.com/review/dropzone/134

International Karate (1986)

Zzap!64 Gold Medal
Zzap!64, 1986
Reviewed very favourably. Rob Hubbard's score described as a masterpiece. The game reached US Billboard No.1 in September 1986 as "World Karate Championship" - the first European-authored game to achieve this.
Lemon64 game page; C64-Wiki: International Karate
HVSC Top 100 - Rob Hubbard's IK Soundtrack
International Karate by Rob Hubbard ranks at position #5 in the HVSC Top 100 - one of the most requested SID tunes in the entire archive, voted by the C64 community.
HVSC Top 100 - transbyte.org/SID/HVSC_Top100.html

International Karate+ / IK+ (1987)

Zzap!64 Gold Medal
97%
Zzap!64, 1987
"Certainly the best fighting game on the C64... The backdrops and smooth animation make the graphics superb, and the sound amazing."
Zzap!64 Gold Medal review, zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displayreview.pl?reviewid=107
Your Sinclair (ZX Spectrum version)
7/10
Score reflects the hardware limitations of the Spectrum port rather than the design quality of the game itself.
Wikipedia - International Karate+
Golden Joystick Award 1988
Best 16-Bit Soundtrack
Rob Hubbard's IK+ score won Best 16-Bit Soundtrack at the 1988 Golden Joystick Awards. The soundtrack was later performed live at the Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig in August 2005.
Wikipedia - International Karate+; Symphonic Game Music Concert records
Lemon64 Community
"Quite simply the best 8-bit fighting game ever made on any platform" with "a wonderful Rob Hubbard soundtrack."
Lemon64 community reviews, lemon64.com/review/ik-plus/68

Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (1991)

95%
The One for Amiga Games, Issue 35, August 1991
Amiga Magazine Rack - amr.abime.net/review_2029
95%
Amiga Action, Issue 24, September 1991
Amiga Magazine Rack - amr.abime.net/review_6134
93%
ZERO Magazine, Issue 23, September 1991
Amiga Magazine Rack - amr.abime.net/review_5769
91%
Amiga Format, Issue 26, September 1991
Amiga Magazine Rack - amr.abime.net/review_2201
90%
Amiga Power, Issue 4, August 1991
Amiga Magazine Rack - amr.abime.net/review_195
90%
CU Amiga, September 1991
Amiga Magazine Rack - amr.abime.net/review_8969
ACE Magazine
"The closest thing to being on a real snooker table which existed at the time."
via retroheadz.com/retro-games/jimmy-whites-whirlwind-snooker-1991/
PC Gamer UK, 1994
Named Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker the 37th best computer game of all time.
via retroheadz.com

Sources

  1. Zzap!64 archive - zzap64.co.uk
  2. Lemon64 - lemon64.com
  3. Amiga Magazine Rack - amr.abime.net
  4. HVSC Top 100 - transbyte.org/SID/HVSC_Top100.html
  5. Wikipedia - International Karate+ - en.wikipedia.org