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Now the A&B team like shoot-'em-ups as much as the average games player, but this is a little too much. Released by US Gold from the American Access original, this game provoked howls of protest from the peace movement when first released over here for the Commodore 64. In fact the Amstrad and Enterprise versions were renamed Raid, but presumably Beeb users are considered strong enough to take the original.

Essentially, the game idea is to thwart the Soviet 'treachery' and knock out their defence centre before their unprovoked nuclear attack against a disarmed America and Canada leads to 'total world domination'. Phew, is that all!

What leaves a slightly sour taste in my mouth is that there is no need for any of this blatant anti-Soviet propaganda. The game is excellent and, like Beach Head which it closely follows in playability and game design, could just as well be non-specific in its combatants. The theme and tag likes like 'Play it like there's no tomorrow!' are playing directly into the hands of those who think that computer gaming leads to anti-social attitudes. Commercially too, it must exclude a lot of people who would enjoy the game but have no desire to embrace such rabid American jingoism.

Putting our moral qualms aside, what we have here is a multiple screen, 3-D arcade action game where, as squadron leader, you must lead a team of commandos on a mission to knock out the three nuclear launch sites at Leningrad, Minsk and Saratov before taking a run at Moscow and the Soviet Defence Centre. This mission divides into six separate sequences, each of which must be completed before you're able to proceed to the next - an aerial Beach Head in fact.

This demands the mastery of a number of different playing techniques as well as a fine sense of judgment - not only are you playing against the clock (sites must be destroyed after missiles have been launched and before impact in America - about eight minutes real time) but your forces must be gathered in expectation of success in each sequence; use too many planes on the first nuclear site, and further into the game you'll not have enough.

You begin with an overview from SAC HQ of the world - as soon as a Soviet launch takes place and you have identified your first target, you switch to the space station. As this is post the Salt IV Arms Agreement, your only defence is a squadron of fighter planes docked in the Space Station. Sequence two consists of scrambling these planes, one at a time, out of the hangar into space above the USSR.

Because of the semi-weightless condition, manouevering the planes takes careful control as there are no brakes - speed can only be reduced by a 180 degree turn and compensating thrust. Assuming you can position the plane properly, the hangar doors have to be opened at the right moment and your plane should glide out into space.

At this point, the display switches back to SAC HQ and you have the option to attack the launch site or return to the space station for more planes. Initially it will take some time even to get planes out of the hangar and I would suggest having as many as possible in space before tackling the attack run. And don't forget that time is forever slipping by.

The technique for launching planes is quite easy once you realise the importance of only attempting one movement at a time. You begin at 90 degrees to the hangar door and your plane will move rapidly towards a wall and destruction at a velocity of 15; stay on the deck and rapidly turn the plane 180 degrees before applying any thrust. Time it right and the plane's velocity should reach 0 before you touch the wall. Tap the thruster and glide back to the starting position with a velocity of 1, whilst again turning 180 degrees. Tap the thruster again at the edge of the launch area and you should stop in the centre; turn 90 degrees to face the hangar door, thrust up to a velocity of 1. Once moving, give yourself some vertical thrust and open the door; but don't rise too high or you'll crash against the top of the door!

Assuming you're now back in space with enough planes, you now direct one plane across the world map to the launch site and we move into the next sequence, the attack run. Scrolling left/right across the screen you must avoid obstacles, Soviet defence forces and heat seeking missiles that attack from the rear - rather like Fortress in fact. The run is complicated by the need to keep low to avoid missiles coupled with shooting everything in sight and rising above or dodging trees or anything else.

Once past the low-level run, it's on to the missile silos! Each launch site consists of one main control silo, surrounded by four launch silos - all of whom will be firing at you as you try to line up your rockets to shoot through small windows in the silos. Depending on the time to impact of the missiles in the States, you can either knock out the support silos (extra points and extra planes to add to your maximum of nine) or go straight for the control, destruction of which will stop the nuclear missiles from detonating.

Right, back to the overview, more missiles launched, more planes to scramble and two more perimeter launch sites to take out before the next real sequence - the final attack run into Moscow and a crack at that Soviet Defence Centre.

Remember Commando? Good, 'cos you'll need a few of those man-to-man skills now to get your commando with his rocket launcher past the soldiers, tanks and so on in this sequence. Blast away, it's all more points, then through the white door to the reactor room once everyone is dead...

Inside the reactor room, you must sabotage maintenance robots thus allowing the reactor temperature to become unstable. To do this, disc grenades must be bounced oof the rear wall to hit the robots in the back where they are vulnerable (well, who said any of this had to make sense?). Of course, they fire at you. Of course, the final robot is so aggressive that he ignores the vital cooling job and just comes right at you. Of course, you are likely to get blown to atoms any second.

Hell, you're a commando, aren't you?

Assuming you blast him to smithereens before critical mass you move to the final chapter, bonus points and, no doubt, the undying love and gratitude of free peoples throughout the world.

This is one heck of a game! Lots of different sequences, lots of differing skills needed for each part and the crucial time element really gets the adrenalin flowing. Graphics are adequate and the game plays well - though I do recommend a joystick as the keyboard game is (to put it mildly) very tricky.

Ignore the politics of the game if you can and add this one to your collection.