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Set a thief to catch a thief, so they say, only in the future it's more a case of freeing criminals to assassinate America's Most Wanted. This bizarre new law, Senate Resolution 101, is due to skyrocketing drug-related crime. You're one such convicted criminal and to earn your complete freedom you've got to 'terminate' a number of gangland bosses. Besides your licence to kill, you've been given an armed skimmer. More importantly, you've got free insurance! A rating of five translates as five lives.

The four criminals you must execute are located in Los Envegas; each controls a quarter of the city. When in pursuit of one you're confined to that quarter. To shoot the drug dealer's ship, you must collect enough evidence - i.e. red drug canisters which are dropped by the drug runner and destroyed henchmen. The number of cannisters needed increases with each level, but once the ship is blown up, the drug dealer still survives. While you pursue the next dealer he uses his insurance to buy another ship. Only after his third defeat can he be killed for good. With four dealers, in all this makes twelve levels to be completed.

When a drug runner starts a run, the sky darkens.. A drug run consists of stops at various buildings; if completed, you lose a life. The dealer can also command drug bosses who, with their henchmen, can be ordered to defend buildings, areas or even attack you! Most henchmen fly saucer-shaped skimmers, but there's also plenty of robotic snipers on the ground.

Initially, hits reduce your armour rating: once this is in the red, instruments such as Local Radar, City Map and various indicators can be destroyed. These can be repaired at shops in any of the nine shopping malls. There are three shop types: for Repairs, Guns and Engine maintenance. You can upgrade your skimmer with more powerful machine guns, cannons and heat-seeking missiles. There's also a booster pack for the engine.

All this costs money, earned by shooting baddies for bounty and collecting squarish cannisters. There are also yellow cannisters (collect four for an extra life) and booby-trapped ones. Further complications are provided by canals and large rivers - if the skimmer stops on any of these it sinks!

If you do get into trouble, a small TV shows the dealer laughing at you; succeed and he grimaces.

The programmers' previous game, Archipelagos, was packed with novelty and originality which I'm disappointed to find a little lacking here.

The urban drug runner chase is a good idea - Turbo Esprit made a hit of it on the Speccy - but there the city is too abstract to be convincing. The sprites aren't initially impressive either, but apart from the odd dodgy robot they soon grow on you. In fact, they turn out to be fairly good with a great 'glass spider' later on.

As the game progresses, it gets better all round, in fact. Saving up to buy equipment takes quite some time, while damage to the instruments works quite realistically. And the maze of canals on sector four ensures plenty of tension there.

101's impressive manual packs in plenty of detail and scenario, but it boils down to being a Backlash-like shoot-'em-up with shops for repairs and add-on equipment. The graphics aren't awesome - an odd mix of solid 3D and sprites - but still effective and fast-moving. Particularly good is the drug runner ship which is good from all angles, and the animated "TV" pictures of the dealers scoffing or weeping!

Gameplay is above average for this type of shoot-'em-up with some nice tactical touches. The drug lords surrounded by assassins provide some formidable opposition, and while the music is a bit too cheerful for the scenario, it's good quality stuff. All in all, a very enjoyable game which will reward long-term play.

Presentation 75%
Ten save positions, good manual and nice options screen with the sheriff

Graphics 77%
Solid 3-D cityscape and sprites ships work well together, although the colours are a bit garish. Instrument panel and shop screens are more realistic

Sound 64%
A strangely cheerful soundtrack can be switched for atmospheric FX

Hookability 74%
A bit confusing initially, but it's all very easy to pick up with typically addictive shoot-'em-up action

Lastability 77%
Twelve levels of increasing difficulty provide quite a challenge, although the variety isn't immense

Overall 76%
An enjoyable blast