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The Japanese are odd - there's absolutely no-one who's likely to disagree with that. If it isn't bizarre cartoons with huge eyes and improbable bodily proportions mucking about, its giant metallic creatures fighting it out or huge rubber dinosaurs intent on world domination. Or enormous flying fortresses using various forms of artillery to blow each other up. This final, very Japanese scenario is what Gotha is based around.

Basically, you guide your enormous fortress through each level, unleashing your mini-fortresses on the multitude of enemy airborne meanies. Blow them all up (or concentrate your firepower on the enemy flagship) to progress to the next level. There is the occasional variation to the gameplay, such as negotiating a minefield or blasting your way through an enemy base, but that's about it.

One thing though - don't expect Gotha to be a pulse-pounding blaster. It isn't. It's actually a pretty thoughtful, strategic wargame. It's sort of like battleships in that you and the computer each takes turns moving your ships about in your efforts to blow each other up. This makes Gotha a very bizarre title that isn't likely to appeal to the majority of gamers, which is a bit of a shame considering the amount of effort put into it.

Very original wargame, with very Japanese airborne fortresses battling it out as only they can.

Take your ships through each airborne arena and use your skill and judgement to blow the opposing ships apart.

Gotha is pretty heavy on the old Jap text, but with the aid of this superlative Mean Machines universal translator, you should easily get the hang of Gotha. Alternatively, you can spend hours figuring it out using trial and error. Like we did.

1. Move Basically, this means move about a bit.

2. Shoot If this icon appears, you have the ability to pull out your cannons and blast the target of your choice. Each ship has a different blasting range and inflicts a varying amount of damage.

3. Miss A Turn Pretty obvious really. Now that we've translated it, that is.

4. Alert! Translation: "Arghhh!" This genuinely frightening Japanese text means you're in range of an enemy cruiser's cannons.

5. Fire! An enemy ship is now in range - fire!

6. Damage Level The more red you see, the more trouble you're in.

7. Who Knows? This bar is about the same level with every ship and doesn't change. Pointless.

8. Armour The higher this is, the more protected your ship is from enemy fire.

9. Distance When you fire this bar goes down. The higher it is when you fire, the more damage you'll inflict.

When I was at school, there were two really sad gits who used to spend hours drawing huge spaceships on pieces of A3 paper, join them together and draw lines from one ship to another, scribbling over the other's drawing to indicate a hit. It seems they invented Gotha!

Using fancy graphics, the player is left to blow up huge ships, and whilst it isn't that exciting it still proves immensely satisfying when a mothership goes down. An unusual Saturn release, but if you're sick of wasting £70 on limited platformers, this is for you.

I hope this review will help anyone who's just bought Gotha: it's all in Japanese and hours of trial and error are needed to sort out what's what.

Once you've got it sussed, Gotha is an eerily enjoyable game. Don't let the visuals deceive you, this is a strategy wargame requiring plenty of brainpower in order to succeed. Learning how each ship operates and using them to overpower the enemy is tricky, but downing an enemy mother fortress brings forth its own rewards.

And there's no denying the game's lastability as well - this one'll keep you playing for weeks longer than Clockwork Knight or Victory Goal.

Graphics 70%
P. Good 3D and great FMV, but you need to get into the game a fair bit before any nice backdrops appear.

Sound 51%
P. Very Japanese background music (That means crap). Irritating sound effects too.

Playability 74%
N. Not easy to get into, but once you've sorted out the controls, the game develops a puzzlingly high level of enjoyment.

Lastability 78%
P. This game is big. If you're willing to persevere, there are weeks' worth in here.

Value For Money 70%
About £50's worth of entertainment at most. Any more and Mr Importer is definitely ripping you off.

Overall 73%
A deep and involving wargame that takes a while to get into, and probably won't appeal to the majority of Saturn owners.