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If you thought Space Ace was an expensive game, you've obviously never heard of the US Air Force's annual bombing competition. All you need is a couple dozen of the world's most expensive aircraft, a few supertankers full of fuel, and a billion dollar air traffic control system.

Activision's simulation of a simulation begins with the pilot picking his aircraft. Choose from the American Phantom, Soviet MiG-27, US F-111 (used to bomb Libya) and British Tornado. Amiga owners can also fly a F-15 Strike Eagle, Swedish Viggen, or another Tornado variant. You can then choose the enemy aircraft type - either the Gruman 'Top Gun' F-14, Soviet MiG-29, or US F-5 (plus the F-16 Falcon, Soviet Su-27, Mirage 2000, and MiG-31 for Amiga owners).

You may also name your pilot, and your performance is automatically saved when you crash or make a landing. But first you must arm your plane with missiles, bombs, and so on - the computer will do this for you if necessary. Confirm your choice and the missions are loaded in. To begin with, you're qualified for just Free Flight (no enemy) and a Covert mission. There are four categories of mission, each containing four missions (two of the C64). Mission types are Covert, Tactical, Strategic and Offensive.

Select a mission and a map appears - click on 'mission text' for a briefing then find your target on the map. Amiga owners can access a 3D recon fly-by of the target, as well as selecting air refuelling points (air refuelling is absent from the C64 game). Another Amiga advantage is the ability to design your own missions, placing a variety or targets, refuelling points etc. These missions can be saved to disk.

Once you've been fully briefed you can go into the game proper, sitting in the cockpit with the instruments before you (a different layout for virtually every plane). Besides the cockpit view, you can select satellite, tower, and tracking views of your plane with full zoom in/out. After that it's wheelbrakes off, thrust up to max, and up, up and away...

Vektor Grafix have made a massive eap from Star Wars to Fighter Bomber, one which is extremely successful on the Amiga at least. Long missions become much shorter when you spend so much time zooming around your polygon-packed aircraft via various exterior views. The realism of flight control is much lower, but at least this makes the game instantly playable.

Once into the game the variety of missions soon impresses; in some there's a tight time limit for destroying several different targets. Often the target is very specific - hit the tent, not just one of the jeeps beside it. So while it's easy to fly (and land, fortunately) the game is far from a push-over. You even have to land the right way don the runway to successfully complete a mission! Fighter Bomber looks good, plays very well indeed and serves as a good introduction to flight sims. Listen out for the rock guitar 'jamming' session at the start, it's great!!

While the C64 game has eight missions and near 16-bit presentation, it lacks extensive ground detail leading to dull play and with it repetition on a grand scale (Project: Stealth Fighter still reigns supreme). Yeah, it's technically very impressive with its fast-moving polygons, but C64 Fighter Bomber is shot out of the sky by dead gameplay.

What's happening? All of a sudden flight sims have become fun. Fighter Bomber is even easier to get into than F-29, simpler to fly and you can't die (the program merely increases your number of crashes from 101 to 101!).

Both Amiga and C64 games offer plenty of options with some great exterior views. The Amiga game is extremely fast and great fun to play. Particularly good are the engine noises which vary according to thrust and aircraft type. The screens where you choose your weapons are great too, on both machines. It's a pity we didn't have more space to show them.

The C64 game has some impressive aircraft graphics, and there's some nice detail on some of the targets too. But the aircraft handles too slowly for it to be as exciting as it should be. Possibly solid 3D was too ambitious for this type of game on the C64.

External views of the C64 aircraft show the program at its best, with attractive solid 3D aircraft moving well over the landscape.

It's particularly neat how the undercarriage retracts and the wings sweep back on swing-wing aircraft. But inside the cockpit you become irritated by the sluggish response, and bored the dull scenery. The most exciting target is a bridge - a few lines, with no road or river in sight. The missions are tough, but there isn't much variety. Air-to-air combat also seems rather infrequent in the missions we've played.

On the Amiga the graphics aren't only more attractive, but much more importantly they move quickly and with detail - crucial for the ground targets. This makes the game a lot more fun, while more missions and a 'design mission' option improves lastability. It's a pity it's a simulation of a simulation (atmosphere is low as a consequence) and the lack of a complex, hilly terrain means low-level bombing isn't as realitic as it might be.

Nevertheless, this is an extremely enjoyable game, which will keep you flying those missions long into the night.

Presentation 84%
Automatic save of pilot's performance is good disk feature. 30-page manual informative on real aircraft rather than game. Cassette owners get the complete C64 game, but multi-load is very heavy. Mark is for the disk game.

Graphics 70%
Nice aircraft graphics and control panel, but movement is sluggish and targets are unexciting.

Sound 62%
Basic engine roar and explosions.

Hookability 64%
Couldn't be easier to get airborne, but the first mission is both difficult and dull.

Lastability 57%
Eight missions and little variety in the ground targets restrict long-term appeal.

Overall 63%
Sluggish solid 3D dulls the excitement of combat.

Presentation 92%
Choice of your aircraft and enemy places shown in in-game 3D and 2D drawings. Recon target option. No disk swaping in-game. Design mission option.

Graphics 89%
Very good aircraft, impressive air-fuelling section, and quite good targets.

Sound 90%
Jamming guitar intro music, great engine roar changing according to thrust, nice explosion and undercarriage FX.

Hookability 90%
16-bit speed makes the first mission both easier and much more fun.

Lastability 91%
16 missions, chance of winning trophy, and option to design your own mission adds up to long-lasting appeal. Advanced Mission Disks are planned.

Overall 90%
A great intro to flight sims with good long-term appeal.