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Survive for as long as possible in a F-14 Tom Cat. This is made difficult by the fact that there are other pilots trying to shoot you down! Get your own back by returning the favour.

It is a little-known fact that the modern day aircraft owes its rapid development to the necessities of war. No sooner had the Wright brothers completed their awkward landing in the world's first flying machine than the American government launched a competition to find the most efficient design for use in war. Victory through air power was very much in evidence throughout the two world wars.

So here we are now, not even a hundred years on, with aircraft reaching speeds far in excess of sound and carrying enough explosives to destroy half the planet. Hurrah!

After Burner III is, in essence, a celebration of the incredible fighter-craft at work in the late twentieth century. A salute to the people that pilot them and, what's more, the exciting opportunity to experience a piece of the action for yourself. What more impressive machine is there to launch us skyward than the American Air Force's own F-14 Tom Cat? And what better piece of hardware exists to take us there than Sega's own Mega-CD?

Surely one of the conditions for becoming a fighter pilot in the US Air Force involves having your entire stomach removed! How else can a man or woman cope with the gut-churning rigours of the common or garden sortie? Keeping out of danger in the air means evasive action where heat-seeking enemy missiles are concerned, and general ducking-and-a-diving in the name of life preservation.

Every five stages the F-14 pilot is ordered to attack ground installations. Such a job requires the cast iron nerve and a spare pair of pants. It is during these low level attacks that the aircraft is most to attack from the likes of tanks and underground bunkers. Other hazards of the lower altitudes present themselves in the forms of towers that are either blasted from their roots or best avoided.

The disc box boldy announces 'A super-real jet simulator', and you just might be led to believe it, considering After Burner III has been trumpeted as the great 3D flying, oh-much-too-technical-to-be-bunged-on-a-cart game. The painful truth - it's more ultra-crap than super-real.

After Burner III is incredible, but only in a way that makes you wonder how it could have been so badly muffed. Note of the sprite-scaling Mega-CD tomfoolery is in evidence, as bland two-colour backdrops shuffle past, 'super-real' blobs passing for trees, houses, missiles, planes...

Graphically, this effort makes the Quickshot Supervision look hi-res. Well, at least the sound will be good... Wrong! CRI must have nabbed the rights to all those tunes they play with Ceefax pages or the Test Card, because they sound exactly the same. The speech is crapola for a CD system.

But the game! Man, the game completely does your head in because it just *isn't there*. Endless afterburners, endless missiles and an endless procession of jets that appear and disappear in a second. This is not gameplay! Let's be honest, the Mega-CD hasn't stirred waters abroad that much, and it's going to bomb even faster here if this is the standard of software support. This dog is an affront to console games, even by 8-bit standards.

This is the most awful piece of software I have had the misfortune to lay my eyes upon in the past three years. Even Dark Castle has more pulling power than this collection of abominable sprites!

Once the laughable, jerkily-animated intro sequence is passed, and suitably ignored, the action takes off and then nose-dives immediately. All that is required is to bank left or right the whole time and wait until the computer locks on to a target - with an infuriating bleep no less - then press the missile button. That, and the occasional roll to avoid the dopey enemy artillery.

It might be nice, then, to observe some pretty scenery as boredom knocks at the door. Yet no! Every location looks exactly the same as the last, apart from the ugly range of colour schemes, allowing boredom to stroll in, sit down and put his feet up for good.

Everyone in the office who has played this game has walked away looking like a vacuous zombie, with stark disbelief radiating from behind glazed-over eyeballs! To mention the diabolical sounds in After Burner III would be like kicking a man when he's down, wouldn't it? Well, the sounds are flippin' disgraceful too! I've never heard such a racket!

After Burner III is the worst game ever on the Megadrive, let alone the Mega-CD.

Presentation 80%
P. A mildly impressive intro sequence featuring the F-14 Tom Cat in action.
N. Once this is over it is dull enough to prevent any future viewings.

Graphics 40%
N. Awful. Half of the screen is a blank sheet of colour, the other is a primary school standard rendition of grass. The sprites are amongst the worst seen on the Megadrive. What a waste!

Sound 56%
N. Dreadful. Some terrible muzac plays away and this is obliterated by a terrible bleeping sound accompanied by the mutterings of a man who sounds constipated. Another waste.

Playability 19%
N. Very minimal indeed. More enjoyment can be had by simply switching the machine off!

Lastability 16%
N. After the very first game most people would gladly run a mile, nay a marathon, before being forced to play it again.
P. Good exercise.

Overall 22%
After Burner III ranks as the biggest waste of potential we've ever witnessed as in a Sega game. Every aspect of the game is simply appalling. Whatever you do, do not buy this!