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Somewhere over the Pacific a fierce battle is raging - a lone fighter plane is up against wave after wave of enemy fighters and bombers. The screen scrolls vertically as the plane under your control dodges and blasts the missile-firing enemy planes which emerge from the top, sides and bottom of the screen. A collision with an enemy plane or missile results in a loss of one of three lives. Occasionally shooting a plane yields a POW capsule which can be picked up for extra firepower.

Your three planes can 'roll' three times. Pressing the space bar makes the plane loop the loop and so avoids enemy craft and missiles. When all three lives are lost your name can be entered in a high-score table for posterity.

American Action have got to be joking - 1943: One Year After is year before it's not true. Clones come and go, but this one really takes the biscuit. They ought to call it 1942: Ten Minutes Later.

The graphics are a little bit smaller and the playing area has been shrunk, but otherwise it's all there - rolls, aircraft carriers, big planes... I hated 1942 the first time it appeared. I hate it twice as much the second time around.

There is nothing appealing about this game whatsoever. The tune that relentlessly drones throughout is incredibly annoying, and the graphics are the poorest standard - the enemy planes are miniscule and lack any detail.

The worst thing about 1943 though, is the game itself - repetitive, unplayable and often frustrating. Ten quid is asking far too much for this sub-standard piece of software. Give it a miss.

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but the programmers of 1943 have actually written a worse version of 1942 than the official conversion. It must have taken them ages.

This is less playable than Elite's offering, and looks and sounds inferior in every way. An awful tune plays throughout the game and is interrupted occasionally by weak sound effects. The enemy planes are a single colour and simply drawn, and there is hardly any backdrop to speak of.

Worse still, 1943 is unplayable and very tedious with it. If American Action want to get a decent hold on the British software scene they are going to have to try harder. A lot harder.

Presentation 48%
High-score table and simple title screen.

Graphics 28%
Bland, unimaginative sprites and backdrops.

Sound 27%
An irritating excuse for a tune plays throughout.

Hookability 34%
Easy to get into, but not very thrilling.

Lastability 20%
Quite simply repetitive and dull.

Value For Money 13%
Not enough action of variety to meet the high price tag.

Overall 21%
A poor clone of an uninspiring conversion of a dated arcade game.