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Those terrorist chaps are at it again - which is great news, actually. Now there's an excuse to hop into the world's 'ardest jet fighter - the Sonic Boom - and blow the living daylights out of large parts of the civillised world.

As with the arcade. Sonic Boom gives the 'top guns' of this world a chance to scroll up-screen shooting and bombing anything in their way. That's it, just another plane game, featuring smart bombs and ghost fighters that sit on your wings.

That, however, doesn't do the game justice. It's fast enough to make life difficult, but has a sufficiently gener-ous credit feature to permit success. There are well 'ard end-of-level guardians, and loads of things to destroy en route to them - the oil terminals on Level Two are personal faves.

The graphics are colourful, the sound more than OK. If vertical scrollers are your thing then there's enough levels to keep fingers on the trigger for weeks. Yet there's nothing about it that screams "Play Me!", the same format having been employed in so many games before (Flying Shark, for example). Sonic Boom is, in essence, a solid conversion of a lacklustre arcade. A shame, as the talent is obviously there but remains untapped.

Nice and colourful, but the bullets can sometimes be hard to see. A wee bit tame and predictable for my taste.

Finish Level Two.

Some bullets are invisible.

Graphics 73%
P. Above average quality for very average sprites.

Sonics 55%
P. Lots of hangs, and a bit of music.

Grab Factor 81%
P. Very familiar, so quickly mastered.

Staying Power 55%
N. Just another scrolling shoot-'em-up.

Overall 61%
Lacks inspiration.