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You play Abel Roznovsky in a desperate battle to outwit William Kane the banker... no, wait a minute, that's the wrong plot. You play the Sheriff who wants to make peace with the Indians and clean up the West in a four stage arcade challenge. Personally I preferred the other scenario - much more interesting.

The four stages are fairly loosely connected but each one presents an enjoyable challenge and has some attractive graphics. You start in a canyon containing an Indian camp. You have to shoot down birds to swap with the Indians for peace tokens. The peace tokens become your lives on the next three stages so it's import-ant that you do well here. The Sheriff runs onto the screen and stands at the bottom right-hand corner holding a bow and arrow. The birds fly on from the left and you control a cursor which determines where the arrow is shot.

The timing of shots isn't too difficult to pick up, and every time you impale a bird through its neck or body it flops to the ground. You only have a limited number of arrows and every time you miss a bird it costs you one arrow. I know it all sound rather tasteless but it's humorously done with tables of 'birdies killed' and 'birdies home' for the ones shot and the ones that got away.

Having collect as many lives as you can, you've got to get the Sheriff to Kane (a town) by riding across the desert. The horse and rider are excellently animated, moving at canter and gallop speeds, and you have to jump them over various bushes, otherwise the Sheriff will be thrown. The distance to the town has to be completed within a time limit, with falls costing a life.

Once in the town you get a view of the main street with the Sheriff at the bottom of the screen. Outlaws come out of the buildings who take a quick shot at you and then disappear. You have to shoot these villains by moving a cursor over them and firing before they disappear. Because the Sheriff's only got a six shooter he has to keep pausing to reload, and he has to keep on the move to avoid the outlaw bullets.

Once you've shot enough bad guys, for some unexplained reason you have to chase a train and stop it. This takes the same form as the ride in to town with obstacles to jump, but is very much tougher. You gallop just a little bit faster than the train but any stops or falls cost you dearly and make life very hard.

If you get through all four stages they are repeated, there being three skill levels; the last stage continuing to be the toughest. The stages aren't stunning when looked at individually but they go together to make a very nice package that is enjoyable to play. The animation on the riding sequences is perhaps the best feature and the whole product has a polished and humorous style to it.

Lovely animation, witty gameplay and great music all give this game real grab. It is very easy to start with, but levels two and three cause you quite a few problems. The practice mode helps you overcome these however, and you might find you can crack the game a bit too easily. Still great fun though - and great value for money.

Looks fine, if you don't mine riding across a green desert.

P. Four different types of stage.
P. Nice backgrounds and great horse animation.
P. Easy to get into but can get quite tough.
P. Humorous touches work well.

N. Some stages are a bit too easy.