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In the sequel to everyone's fave coin-op, Operation Wolf. Roy Adams returns weary and battle-scarred, unfeasibly large muscles aching and trigger-finger darn near worn out. But not a medal is offered him, not even a little badge saying 'hero' (life's so unfair!). In fact, they pack him straight off to a hostage mission without as much as a 'Thanks'.

Good old Roy, never disheartened, employs him crack team to vanquish the terrorists who've hijacked a DC-10 and landed it in hostile African territory. Unlike Operation Wolf's horizontally scrolling landscape, Thunderbolt has you running up a road with villains running *down* the road at you in supposed 3D, *as well* as a horizontal bit (Cor blimey! Wowser! And other such statements!)

And the graphics aren't half bad either, very well-drawn little men throw bombs at you and blocky big men shoot you at point-black range with their Uzis. Mind you, the backgrounds are boring, as are the helicopters, and the trucks flicker as they try to mow you down.

The gameplay isn't much better. For all the features mentioned above, there's still a lack of variety. The plain old shooting gets boring after a while, even more so because Level 3 is incredibly tough, while 1 and 2 are easy. Also you tend to lose track of your gun, as there are no sights on it and it takes several seconds to find out where it's pointing (how about at the programmers?) - during that time you get pumped full of lead. That can be remedied by finding a laser-sight, but these are fairly few and far between.

Operation Thunderbolt got a whopping 92% when first reviewed in Issue 57. But the version reviewed was one we saw on an Ocean visit, and unfortunately during the process of taking it off their development systems and putting it on tape apparently insoluble problems arose. The programming team were pulled off the project and a new bunch of guys knocked this effort out in record time, but it bore little resemblance to the original program at all - as Lloyd pointed out so well in the Rrap at that time.

I'll set the record straight by telling you that Operation Thunderbolt is a boring and forgettable game, so be careful and think before parting with your well-earned cash or pocket money.