To be honest the only reason I got this one as that I wanted to make up the set of four like usual and the Kickstarter pledge only got three annuals and not four like last year. They said it was due to higher costs but they should know the costs by now after doing it for five or six years. Not sure if I am going to get next year’s annuals at this stage.

Even though I already get the CRASH annual this seemed different enough to be worth buying. It is a bit more of an enthusiast one for people who own the NEXT machine or are at least interested in it. This one even has code listings in it that I did not read but appreciated it appearing in the book like the old days.

The features seemed to be a bit more in-depth and also they had several pages of maps for the Head Over Heels release that takes up a significant amount of the book.

None of these books have an ISBN on them for some reason? Are they not listed as an official book? Kind of annoying if you want to register the books you are reading for tracking. It seems some books have them for the publisher and some do not.

I did enjoy the developer interviews and the more in-depth games development features. The NEXT machine does look like it would be fun to develop for and a lot of people have a lot more experience these days than when they first developed back in the 8bit days. It seems there are a lot of collaborative projects over the internet.

There are not heaps of reviews of games in this one but you get those in the other annuals or magazines if you are getting the more regular magazines. Due to them being published in the UK it is not really worth it for me.

As to whether I would recommend this one to the more casual retro gaming fan, probably not. If you are already getting the CRASH annual or the regular magazine you would be getting this already though.

Rating: 3.5/5

Book details:

Editor: Chris Wilkins

Contributing Writers: Gordon King, Paul Davies, David Saphier, Adrian Sinclair, Paul Hesso, Craig Turner, Graeme Mason, Stoo Cambridge, Tony Warriner, Richard Falkner, Michael Moore, Alan Hamerton, Dave Sonic Clarke

Design & Layout: Ben Honebone

Next Magazine Logo: David Perkins, Ben Honebone

Crowley Doodles: Simon Butler

Cover Artwork: Trevor Storey

Proofreading: Ian Osbourne, Ben Honebone, Chris Wilkins

Publisher: Fusion Retro Books

Year Published: 2024

Format: Hard cover, colour, A4, 108 pages

Contents:

Features:

The Next Wave

The Remake Club

Attack of the Clones

Create Music & Sound Effects on Your Next

World AY Series

Spectrum Evolved

Adventure Gaming on the Next

SYMBOS on the Next

Interview:

Clive Townsend

Reviews:

Celeste

TX-1696

Head over Heels

Magnum Clean Shot

Warhawk

Aliens Neoplasma 2

The Lost Temples

Night Knight

Tutorial:

Learn to program the Spectrum Next

Dev Diaries:

Captain Square Jaw

UrbX Warriors

TX-1696

Playing Tips:

Aliens Neoplasma 2

Night

Head Over Heels Maps:

Blacktooth 1

Market, Blacktooth 2, Moonbase

Bookworld

Egyptus & Petitionary

Safari & Tech Town

Blacktooth 3

Gallery: