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Cross the desert landscapes, destroying enemy installations to complete the set mission objectives in each campaign.

Alert! Alert, if you don't mind ladies and gentlemen! A Middle Eastern dictator, General Kilbaba, has just invaded a neighbouring country and annexed it to his own so that he can steal its precious natural resources. If he gets away with it he'll use them to further his plans for world conquest... and then we'll all be sorry!

It's lucky for us then that the USA just happened to have a fleet of warships in the area to help kick out the invaders before they take total control. However, it's unlucky for you that you happened to be in one of those warships and now have to pilot a Desert Apache Attack Helicopter into terrain crawling with enemy ground artillery. Yep, danger with a capital 'D' awaits you as you undertake five campaigns, striking at his weapons factories, releasing his unfortunate prisoners and putting his entire military capability to the torch.

There are five campaigns in Desert Strike, each with an overall objective, but to accomplish that objective you need to complete a series of missions in each warzone.

It's as well to attempt these missions in order as they're cleverly linked. In the first campaign, for example, your first target is a pair of radar installations on the coast. If you ship these in search of tank-busting glory you'll find that the radar has already picked you up and has passed your position on to the tanks so they'll be ready to knock your rotors off before you fire a shot.

Do things properly, though, and enemy artillery will be unprepared for any attack and you stand a much better chance.

The Desert Apache is equipped with three different weapons systems which more or less target themselves on anything within their range. The chain gun is really only useful against very sort targets (enemy soldiers, for example), but for tougher stuff you have a healthy supply of Hydra missiles and a small quantity of the much more destructive Hellfires which can take out a missile battery before it's even got you in its sights.

Naturally, ammo is limited, so it's important to keep an eye out for weapons crates which are scattered around the landscape.

The Desert Apache has a two-person crew - you are a gunner/winchman who aims the weapons and operates the winch when airlifting supplies or people. Before the game you get to pick a winchman from a selection of officers who may be better at gunnery than winch operation or vice versa. There is one guy, though, who is excellent at both but he's been shot down and is stranded somewhere in the desert until you find him.

He's worth tracking down though, as once he's on board he can get your gun to fire faster and he can make winching up supplies fast and easy - very important when you're surrounded by anti-aircraft artillery!

I'm one of the thousands who played Desert Strike for ages and found it to be one of the most rewarding blasts of its time. This Master System version is virtually the same with the same blend of highly original shooting gameplay.

What I like is that this game isn't totally reliant on reflexes - you need brains in order to beat Kilbaba's cronies. I'm not going to beat about the bush - this is an excellent conversion and one of the best Master System games I've had the pleasure to play for months.

Pshaw! What? Surely no programmer could coax the humble Master System into producing a decent conversion of such a monster shoot-'em-up as Desert Strike? Surely...?

Well, hey, wait a minute now, because this isn't bad - in fact, it's excellent! Amazingly, just about everything that was in the Megadrive game has somehow been packed into this Master System cart too. The great mix of blasting with strategy is all there, all the missions which start off easy and get really tough... I can't quite believe it.

The graphics are ace, everything is ace. The only thing I can possibly fault is that I sometimes found myself crashing into buildings which I looked like I should have been clearing by a few pixels. But hey, for gameplay of this quality I can put up with that.

All this pixel-death may not be in keeping with the spirit of Christmas, but Master System owners should put this at the top of their lists to Santa now!

Presentation 92%
P. Excellent range of options and in-game info displays.
N. Having to use the pause button to get those info displays is a little irksome.

Graphics 91%
P. Very impressive on the whole. Smooth scrolling, detailed sprites and buildings.
N. The helicopter sprite looks a little out of proportion.

Sound 69%
P. Pretty good title screen music.
N. The sound effects are annoying.

Playability 92%
P. An excellent blend of blasting and strategy which grabs you right from the start.
N. Collision detection between the helicopter and buildings is occasionally suspect.

Lastability 91%
P. Starts off easy but gets very tough by the third campaign.

Overall 92%
A tremendous conversion of an excellent game. The graphics and gameplay should go down a desert storm. No Master System owner should miss it.