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Biggles in the Air, Biggles in London, Biggles all over the place. In the film, Biggles gets caught up in a timewarp that sends him flying backwards and forward across time as he attempts to find and destroy the secret Sound Weapon with the aid of Jim, his 'time twin' from 1986.

The computer game takes the same plot and uses the timewarp device to construct a four part game based on the different times and locations that Biggles finds himself in during the course of the film.

Side one of the game tape contains the Timewarp game. This is made up of three related sequences (Air, London and Battlefield, as above). The sequences have to be completed in the correct order, whch is made a little bit tricky because of the timewarp that can snatch him out of one sequence at any moment and drop him into another one, so you'll have to plan carefully to make sure that you get them finished in the right order.

In the first, Biggles in the Air, you control Biggles' biplane as he flies over enemy lines trying to find and photograph their secret weapon. On the ground below, there are anti-aircraft guns that are trying to blast you out of the sky, and weapon dumps that can supply you with bombs. Up in the air with you are enemy aircraft ready to shoot you down unless you can duck and dive past them or shoot them down yourself. Your plane moves up/down, back and forth over a scrolling landscape, and you need to react quickly, to avoid the enemy firepower. Like all the parts of the Timewarp game, this is a simple game, but one which is enjoyable, and tricky enough to offer a challenge.

The Battlefield section is a bit like a cutdown version of Imagine's Green Beret. You control Biggles as he runs across a battlefield, dodging and shooting his way past enemy soldiers as he tries to reach the weapon's test site. Though this part of the game acks the detailed graphics of Green Beret, I actually found this version more playable. It's not quite as fast as the Imagine version, and there are fewer soldiers pouring onto the screen and whereas I never managed to last more than a few seconds in Green Beret, in this game I felt that I had a fighting chance of getting through if I could just go back and have a few more tries.

In the London sequence, Biggles and Jim have to leap across the rooftops to reach the timewarp and get back to 1917. You control the figures of both characters, and as well as getting them to jump the gaps between buildings have also got to get them past the rooftop patrols and snipers whoa are situated in other buildings taking potshots at the two darling chums. Again, it's a simple game but still playable enough to keep you working at it.

Side two of the tape is the final adventure in which you fly Biggles over enemy lines in a hi-tech helicopter as you set out to finally destroy the Sound Weapon. Along the way you can pick u equipment and some of Biggles' pals, including Marie the resistance fighter who can help you locate the test site.

This game is a sort of cross between a flight simulator and wargame. As you pilot the helicopter over the enemy ground your cockpit controls offer to map displays showing the locations held by the enemy and those that are being held (singlehandedly of course) by some of Biggles' chums.

I normally find flight simulations a bit boring - all that waching of dials, worrying about altitude, airspeed, and tying fifteen fingers in knots just never seems like much fun - but the programmers have kept things simple here, and put the emphasis on playability and dropping bombs on the enemy, which is more my kind of thing.

Games based on films and TV series have, deservedly on the whole, gotten a lot of bad reviews and I wasn't expecting all that much from this one, but Mirrorsoft have come up with one of the better tie-in games. Biggles comes through again!