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At first glance I thought Desert Strike had come out on the CPC. Nope. I slumped back into the chair. Another vertically-scrolling, helicopter shoot-'em-up. though with a bit of Science Fiction thrown in to spice things up.

Earth has been invaded by Martians. Life as we know it will come to an end if you fail this mission. So climb into your Copter 271 and take to the air.

The screen scrolls slowly so you have to be quick to dodge the enemy. You can move up, down, left and right - dead handy that - but once the screen has scrolled by you can't go back down to blast something you've missed. And you can only fire up the screen, so if a baddie is attacking at, say, two o'clock you have to move down and right to shoot it - not very convenient.

You can pick up armaments by flying over the things that look like landing pads. These increase the copter's fire power, either with rockets or extra guns. The Martians have taken over everything, including Channel 4, so you might as well blast away at everything, because everything is bound to be the enemy your bones. It's not as though the game is too easy, or too difficult. It's just that the sea stretches on for seemingly endless screens. The swarms of alien aircraft keep coming, and the copter explodes into a fireball at the slightest impact. There is a detectable delay between the hit and the explosion which lulls you into the false security that you got away with it this time. No such luck.

You get more lives than a Buddhist would know what to do with, so the game continues for what seems an eternity. As you die for what seems to be the five-hundredth time you have to decide, do you climb back into your copter? No, not on your nelly! Game well and truly over. Thank God.