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A shoot-'em-up war game from US Gold which I enjoyed more than the original. There are plenty of options - one or two players, three difficulty levels, choice of being attacker or defender and keyboard or joystick options.

The game consists of four phases: attack, rescue, escape and battle. Beach Head II bears some vague resemblance to the arcade game Commando, although the graphics are nowhere near as good.

The graphics are excellent, though small, and they are well animated. Scores tend to be of the massive variety and these are kept on a high score table. Sound is to the Spectrum's usual standard. The machine plays a mean game in the one player mode and should provide a challenge for the most ardent arcadian. I particularly liked the two player mode where you can get rid of your aggression by slaughtering a friend!

There are some who believe that this kind of wanton destruction is morally unhealthy - I suggest they avoid this program. Personally I found this to be a good example of the mindless zap everything that moves game, and I must also admit to enjoying a few plays when the strain of coping with the state of the art mindbenders becomes too much.