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What a length of time this has taken to get to the shops. We reviewed it a few months ago but Ocean said that they have since worked on the game still further so could we "Re-review it in its new, all-signing, all-dancing form?" We gave it to the non-signing, disco disaster IAN WATSON for a first impression.. (which was Tommy Cooper and was crap so we hit him - just like that!)

An arcade/strategy game set in a 'near future alternate reality' (a bit of wasteland featuring such futuristic innovation as roads and rivers!). Battle Command does its utmost to be wild and action packed, combining all the thrills of driving a tank with the military responsibility of having a massively important mission to complete. Sadly though this nowhere nearly as exciting as it sounds as Battle Command simulates reality so well that you soon find that driving tanks involves long periods of doing just that - driving around with nothing more interesting than the horizon to shoot at. Thus you may spend several minutes equipping your tank with rocket launchers and turbo lasers and pouring over your mission briefing and terrain plan (erm, I think that's a map folks), in order to get most of the way to a target before anything happens.

So, it's especially important that the host of options to add some zest to the proceedings. Each separate mission features a new tactical twist (night manoeuvres, hostage rescue, convoy defence etc), and obviously if you're looking for trouble (da da, da da) then you have come to the right place, where the various tanks are more than willing to fire wildly explosive black squares of colour at you.

What makes Battle Command quite so unspecial is that once completed, the missions really pose little problem, and any attempts to relive old glories will see the player just going through the motions. A surprisingly unastounding game. Mission completed. Return to pick up point.

Label: Ocean Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: Ian Watson

You've really got to be the type who goes looking for trouble to get anything out of this game. Good graphics and a host of weaponry and options make it a thinking persons shoot 'em up but for me, it's just a bit pedestrian.