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The future, eh? Doesn't look too promising, does it? I mean, according to Terminator 2 we're going to have a nuclear holocaust in the early 2000s, The Lawnmower Man reckons virtual reality will take over the world, allowing people to control each other's minds and Star Trek suggests the universe will be full of mindless Klingons. (Uggh. Where's the toilet paper?)

Well, whatever hopes I had left for a bright and happy future have just flown suicidally out of the window after stepping just eleven years forwards into the time of Narco Police. The year is 2003 and it saddens me to learn that one fifth of the world's population are now drug-addicts, meaning that drug dealers are taking over our sweet little planet. How depressing!

You are a top member of the Narco Police - an antidrug corps - and have to penetrate the drug barons' fortress, the Narco Processing Centre, located somewhere on a Colombian island (where else, eh?). You'll be slightly relieved to know that three squadrons of NP agents will accompany you though. Choose your weaponry and your three different starting points on the island (one for each group of men) and get firing!

The island base consists of a network of underground tunnels, which you'll hove to negotiate if you're going to get into the heart of the fortress. You can change between the three teams of soldiers at any time using your Personal Intercom Unit, which also allows you to carry out many other useful commands. On your travels through the maze, guards will crop up everywhere, as well as the odd tank, so put your armoury to good use and get blasting!

Although it might sound a good little number, I found Narco Police very boring. The graphics are monochrome and poorly defined, scrolling is jerky and the game is virtually silent, save a few weedy gunshot noises. Although the guards are easy to dispatch on their own, you have no chance against a batch often, whom I often discovered lurking around corners, and you quickly tire of being endlessly slaughtered in the same old way. Maybe I'm just useless, but Narco Police was just too difficult and very boring.

Label: GBH Memory: 48K/128K Price: £3.99 Tape Reviewer: Marc Richards

Shoot 'em ups should be fast, furious and fun, with plenty of action and violence. Unfortunately this isn't. It's got too strong a strategy element for it's own good, and should only be bought by insomniacs.