Rumbo Can Go Dumbo

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Armed with grenades and the latest MI6 rifle, Sergeant Rumbo sets out on his mission to free prisoners held captive by communist guerrillas. Basically, Saigon is the same game as Commando - run up the screen shooting everyone.

Bad points first; the disc came without a sleeve and the game took over a minute to load from disc! There doesn't appear to be any pause button, the sound is dreadful and cannot be turned off. The '3D' graphics are odd - you can shoot through walls and bridges. Controlling Rumbo is difficult, the keys aren't user-definable, and bullets are difficult to see against the background graphics. The scrolling is poor, and it is sometimes impossible to dodge a bullet; the baddies shoot even when the scrolling is taking place, but you're frozen until it stops. Grenades are tricky to get the hand of, and for the 'dead of night' sequence described in the instruction, the scenery is surprisingly light! Finally when you quit the game, the protection routines asked mean you have to turn the Beeb off and on again to get back to Basic.

And now the good points; it works, it's colourful, and there is one good things about the background music that I'm sure you'll appreciate - it can be disabled.

Saigon's good and bad points don't balance. Far from it, the game is third rate. Pull your socks up, Tynesoft, you have proved in the past that you are capable of much, much better.

Sam Greenhill