KANE

STORY/GAMEPLAY:
You play the role of a Sheriff and start your missions in a canyon where an Indian camp is located. There is a pseudo 3D shooting galore gameplay in which you have to shoot down birds (!) to swap with the Indians for peace tokens. The peace tokens are your lives on the next three stages so it's important to be successful on the shooting. The Sheriff runs onto the screen and stands at the bottom right-hand corner carrying a bow and arrows. The birds fly from the left and you control a cursor that determines your arrow shot. The timing of each shot isn't too difficult and every time you hit a bird it falls to the ground. You only have a limited number of arrows and every time you miss a bird it costs you one arrow. At the second stage, the Sheriff rides a horse and must reach the town of Kane within a set time limit. He must canter left to right or gallop to overcome wide obstacles. There are a number of obstacles (like bushes and rocks) that you must avoid by jumping over. The peace tokens are spent if the horse collides with an obstacle, and if you lose all of them, the rider gives up and it's game over. If you survive, you enter the town, where there is again a pseudo 3D shooting galore gameplay at the town center. You have to wipe out enemies that hide behind handy bits of scenic camouflage (like the windows of a Saloon, a Bank, behind barrels).In the last stage, the Sheriff rides his horse again and must catch a train, this time moving from right to left. The train is travelling at the horse's canter speed, so you must move faster than the train to reach the steam-engine and stop it. As on the second stage, the horse must also jump over obstacles.
Fortunately there is a practice mode, where you can select each of the four stages at any time.
Kane is a game that offers great fun, although its somewhat average graphics and sound.

GRAPHICS/SOUND:
Kane has a multi-mode technique that allows the mix of different graphics modes (MODE 0 for the lives, score bar at the top, MODE 1 for the actual gameplay area), in which the CPC's color palette changes by the use of rasters between zones. The animations of the riding sequences (stage 2 and 4) plus the birds flying at the first stage, are pretty smooth.
The sound effects include a “whizzed” sound of the arrow flying through the air, gunshots and a train engine sound, while there is a classic Western style tune but only on the main menu and during the second stage (the first horse riding sequence).