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Civilisation as we know it is about to end! Hordes of alien marauders have begun to infest our colonies killing all in their path! Arrgghhh! Once again, it looks like raising an army to fight off impending doom looks rather unlikely, so it's down to you and your Hellfire class attack craft to face the hideous menace on your lonesome.

Thankfully, crammed into the Hellfire's attack-pack is directable weaponry which switches from forward-firing laser bolts, to rear fire, to vertically firing photons, and best of all, four-way diagonal laser destruction, at the push of a button. But that's not all. As you progress through the six horizontally scrolling levels, power-ups will occasionally appear enabling to increase your destructive potential still further!

But beware! Even with all this weaponry, the enemy craft aren't just photon fodder. They've drafted in legions of terrifying fighters, along with huge mother ships and even larger Grandmother ships! So have your wits about you - the heat is always on with Hellfire!

I thought that Thunderforce III was the last word in Megadrive shoot-'em-ups, but Hellfire simply blows it away! Graphically it's tremendous - the brilliant backdrops of the Toaplan coin-op have been faithfully reproduced - down to the last pixel!

The sound, too is simply spot-on, with pulse-racing tunes and ear-blasting FX. But it's the playability of this effort that puts it head-and-shoulders above the opposition - the ship just feels so good to control and the satisfaction of destroying the huge end-of-level guardians is just tremendous!

Hellfire is certainly a bit on the difficult side. Office shoot-'em-up veternas were hard-pushed to complete the game in easy mode! With extra skill levels thrown in for added lastability, Hellfire simply burns up the opposition! Go for it - now!