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Ever get the feeling that you've just made an incredibly stupid mistake and are completely doomed? Like volunteering to sell a 1,000 rattle tickets down your street? Or accepting promotion to Squadron Commander, Battle Group V?

Of course, it sounds like one of those powerful jobs where you sit aboard a flagship and send other, lowly people into battle. Now you've arrived at Galax Lunar HQ and all they've got for you is a pair of Delta II class cruisers. So what exactly does your 'promotion' mean? Well, there are lots of unbelievably dangerous missions that you can now accept. Suicide missions, in short, and one's just arrived for you!

Commander Berry Mayers and the extremely fanciable Commander Lori Bergin have just gone missing. They'd completed a spying mission on Urania, home planet of the Barrax Empire, when something interrupted their journey. Apparently their ship was boarded and towed to Terrainia, the most heavily defended planet in the known universe.

Battle Group V is to fly over the planet, and into its three underground bases - via entry points on the wraparound, vertically scrolling surface - destroying all the Barraxians before liberating the hostages. Unfortunately the Barraxians have developed many biological weapons, such as huge, laser-spitting mutant plants and enormous files. Then there's the invisible fighters and homing missiles!

Fortunately your ship doesn't have to stick with its fitted armament. When blasted, transport ships release upgrade capsules which float across the screen slowly changing colour. If you've got an Emerald Laser, collecting the capsule when it's green will upgrade it. Alternatively you can collect another colour, switching to Magnetic Torps, an Anti-Particle Beam, or a Magma Wave. Including upgrades there are 25 different types of weapon which vary from being precise and hard-hitting, to weaker but covering a bigger area.

No less useful are Nova smart bombs. Hold down fire and rotate the joystick to activate this fearsome, swirling mass of energy. You start off armed with three, but more can be collected.

I love the graphics on this game, from the hideous organic levels to the superbly detailed purple bases. But what's best about Battle Squadron is the excellent simultaneous two-player mode which gives it an edge on most vertical scrollers - two players means twice the fun.

As in that other classic two-player shoot-'em-up, Blood Money, there's usually a mad dash to get the extra weaponry icons! Another good feature is the option to change the game parameters; a neat touch in a very playable blast-'em-up.

Battle Squadron reminds me of another great Amiga shoot-'em-up, namely Sidewinder. There's the slight horizontal scroll, the excellent wrecked baddie graphics and even the relatively slow orange bullets. But Battle is clearly a great advance, the graphics are that much more varied and well drawn - undoubtedly the best touch is the superb, shimmering invisibility effect. The ability to upgrade your weapons is also good: staying on the surface to build up your firepower for the underground sections adds a nice element of tactical play. I don't think this has quite got the attention to game detail as R-Type, but it's certainly an extremely playable, arcade-style spectacular.

Sadly, no plans for a C64 version.

Presentation 92%
Simultaneous two-player option, plus continue-play option if you don't customise game (changing speed and maximum number of alien bullets, etc).

Graphics 94%
Seven different landscapes, all crammed full of detail with their own baddies. Predator-style invisibility effect is brilliant!

Sound 85%
Music is rather banal but can be turned off, FX are good.

Hookability 91%
Instantly playable with lots to see and tactics to learn.

Lastability 82%
A massive challenge, but it's too easy to see all the levels. The only incentive over the long-term is higher scores and using more weapons.

Overall 85%
A first class shoot-'em-up.