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Would it frighten you to know that the world's most advanced airborne killer is a set of user defined graphic Us?

The UDGs pop up at the beginning of the game as Black Hawk is supposed to near the enemy coast line. Seconds later, as the first enemy helicopters appear from the top 8 of the jerkily scrolling screen, the UDGs transform into the aircraft.

Once you're set up to play - all parts of the screen functioning as they should - you drift inland and destroy as many enemy guns, tanks and installations as you can using bullets and bombs.

The bullets are hardly visible, being white against blue or green backgrounds and the bombs have a mind of their own.

You get a percentage score for the number of direct hits you've made on ground-based installations and a points score for aircraft you knock out.

Many of the missions I found are almost unplayable because of the fire power of your opponents. Helicopters, gun emplacements and tanks can fire diagonally at you while your puny gun in the nose of Black Hawk, can only fire forward.

The glossy cover promises a lot and fails to deliver.

Label: Sparklers Price: £1.99 Joystick: various Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: John Gilbert

*****

This used to be a full price game! It was so hopeless then that even now it's out on budget it still can't cut it.