Kane

The player takes the role of sheriff of the town of Kane. The game is split into four levels, two of which are shooting games using an on-screen target and two of which are side-scrolling action sequences on horseback. Only the shooting levels are present in all versions of the game. These may be played separately in the practice mode (with only one try given), but in order to complete and win the game, they must be played successively. The progress in the first scene defines the tries given in the next scenes.

Scene 1: The player controls a target and must shoot birds with a bow and arrow in order to trade with the Indians. The birds appear at varying altitude from the left and fly horizontally to the right. At higher difficulty levels the speed also varies. The player starts with ten arrows.

Reviews for the game were mixed, possibly reflecting the relative quality of the different versions of the game. The original version on the C64 was given a generally positive review in Zzap!64 with particular praise being given to the sampled sound effects and animation of the main sprites (although they alleged that the main character is stolen from Impossible Mission). The music comes in for criticism with the backgrounds and short nature of the game also being questioned but the game is recommended as "worth every penny of the measly two quid asking price" with an overall score of 63%. In direct contrast, their review of the C16 version in the Zzap!C16 supplement, the background graphics are praised but they claim "the movement of the main sprite leaves a little to be desired" giving an overall score of 48%. The Amstrad version (which is the most similar to the original) was particularly well received, scoring 70% in both Amstrad Action and Amtix!.

The Spectrum version gained less favourable reviews. Your Sinclair was particularly critical, giving a score of only 3/10, complaining of the "luridly coloured" background graphics and the "dreadfully repetitive" gameplay. Graham Taylor of Sinclair User could find only the character animation worthy of praise saying "the rest stinks", giving a score of 2/5. Crash gave a slightly higher score of 54% but were still mostly dismissive and did not recommend the game, claiming it was inferior to the original: "Mastertronic seem to have taken their time translating this to the Spectrum - and to be honest they shouldn't have bothered".

Kane 2 was released in 1988 for the C64 but was not ported to any other machines. It is very similar to the first game with almost identical graphics and gameplay. Scene 1 is a riding and shooting level, scene 2 is a shooting level (like scene 3 in the first game), scene 3 is a challenge to tame a bronco and scene 4 is a riding level. The lack of improvement over two years after the original lead to negative reviews.

64 gave a score of 33% and said "it's not abysmal, it's just that it doesn't really approach the standards required of a good budget program these days. Kane was good for its time, but in mid 1988 Kane II just doesn't appeal in the same way".