Yo ma man, how good of you to come. S'like, many moons we've been waiting for your 'Shellshock' to come. So just chill and put on that there Saturn... Right, forget it. We are all, in fact, terribly British here at Mean Machines. Unlike our friends at Core in Derby, we don't take to spraying graffiti on gable ends, wearing dog tags and 'eating twinkies'.

This Americana is really not acceptable in the Farringdon area of London, where the closest we get to Stateside is a Zinger meal deal. There's also not a lot of call for tanks around here, although bombs are something we occasionally experience. It was, in that case, more culture- than Shell-shock to come across Core's heavily styled tank battle game. The background to the action are various 'on-going international situations' which sounds very much like the protracted production history of this very piece of software. But it's ready, and now is the time to, though we loathe to say it, "Kick Ass".

The game has a 'Core feel' to it, and definitely pays tribute to the seminal Atari Battlezone coin-op.

25 different missions with a similar theme: destroy or crush everything in your path!

Initially, mission objectives are simple, but as the missions progress, you are expected to achieve more subtle objectives such as hostage recovery and convoy elimination. Each mission is preceded by a detailed analysis and background report delivered by 'The Man'. This figure is your mysterious Commander-in-Chief, who apparently has global crusading instincts aimed at tackling genocide, drugs, territorial disputes etc. Of course, in the world of Shellshock this can all be settled satisfactorily from behind the barrel of a gun.

Easy mission, Bosnia scenario with very East European civil architecture. Wander around the town seeking the tank units.

Frenzy of destruction if you can breach the tank defences and the flimsy corrugated iron fence. Lots of bonus crates located in debris of enemy infrastructure.

A staple of any Core game - find the moving convoy and knock it out. Made more complex by the heavy tree cover and armour lying-in-wait.

Action is viewed from a first-person tank-top perspective (not a reference to early 80s fashion attire). Although the tank rotates and moves forward conventionally, it is possible to spin the turret without changing the direction of movement. This technique comes in useful later on when enemy tanks are more sophisticated in their tactics. Other areas of interest in the turret are the compass and radar.

These are particularly important because many levels involve heavy foilage cover, so working out where you are going and what stands in your way is easier to do using these devices. A further curio is the tactical map, which depicts a plan view of the tank with all objects shown as simple vectors. Designed as a nav device, it looks more like an early video game and you can actually play the game here in realtime. Check it aht!

Shellshock's heavily trailed plot development reminds you of being part of a team (though the other members are never in evidence on the field). Between missions, you can drift around 'Da Wardenz' American base, talking to your brothers in arms, using their skills and taking their caustic advice:

1. 9-1-1
2. Dogg Tag
3. D-Tour
4. Props

Odd. That's the best description for the interlude scenes which feature dialogue between other Wardenz. The discussions are irrelevant to the missions, really they're meant to be Tarantino-esque musings about life's little details, much like the infamous 'Royale with Cheese' speech from Pulp Fiction and the 'Like a Virgin' round natter from Resevoir Dogs. Does it work in a video game? No comment...

If you're customising, here are the options:

1. Extra Armour
   Sustain more damage before pulling out.
2. Targetting Computer
   Improve aim and distance with assisted sights.
3. Reload Mechanism
   Reduce 'dead' time between shots.
4. Track Upgrade
   Counter the effect of slide on poor terrains.
5. SAM
   Missile specifically for use against helicopters.
6. Chain Gun Coolant
   Extend the firing window of your small arm.
7. Air Cover
   Huge payoff for a one-off cluster bombing.

To pay for all these goodies, pick up the crates hidden away on most levels.

Shellshock's boast is that just about anything can be destroyed in the game. We got TV's That's Life team to test that claim and here's what their spokesman, Gavin Campbell, said: "Yes, indeed, when playing Shellshock we found we could blow just about everything to buggery - tanks, bridges, state-provided housing. We can't fault the claim".

What Gavin failed to mention was the depth-cued explosions which are some of the most thundersome ever heard in a video game.

Immediately accessible and quick to reward, Shellshock is initially quite alluring. The intro (and outro) sequences are impressive, marred only by banal dialogue that only goes to show that emulating the work of a certain Oscar-winning writer isn't as easy as someone seems to think.

Scratch away the admittedly impressive intro veneer and you'll find a relatively unsophisticated game underneath. Gameplay is repetitive, any acquired skills being less useful than grim perseverence in the face of some very dim-witted opposition. The rather dated-looking graphics similarly let down a concept that could have been a lot more arresting with some more attention lavished on its execution.

The most positive thing to say about this is that it sounds excellent, explosions and music adding an extra dimension to the undemanding action. However, next time I want to listen to two blokes banging on about how cream cakes are smaller than they used to be I think I'll visit my local bun shop.

For every Cinderella there's an ugly sister, and sadly Thunderhawk 2's cosmetically-challenged sibling is Shellshock. The games appear to have more in common than they actually do. Shellshock is a less involved, more immediate style of gameplay reminiscent of the old coin-op Battlezone.

There's a fair amount of fun to be had just rolling off in search of mayhem. Certain factors tend to irritate. Enemy tanks tend to sit and wait for you to approach, so creeping along is a laborious but safe way to plough through overly difficult levels. The turret control is unsatisfactory and changing the controls in the tank doesn't give you another method of squaring the turret direction with the tank direction (only the default mode has this).

Tank and turret are often confusingly out of synch. And the graphics, it has to be said, are much poorer than Thunderhawk. The use of a scrolling bitmap terrin produces speed, but the payoffs are monotonously flat terrain and wibbly sprite scrolling. One thing further, the 'dialogue' sequences fall embarrassingly flag with neither the flair or insight of a Tarantino to integrate them in the action.

Ironically, it's not the syling of Shellshock that most appeals - it's a portion of the bare bones gameplay.

Graphics 75%
P. Nice explosions and some element of warzone character. Nice styling of the Wardenz base.
N. Too oppressively drab in places.

Animation 70%
P. Fast scrolling.
N. Precious little animation in the interlude scenes. Unpolished pop-up of sprites.

Music 89%
P. A lot of time spent on a comprehensive hip-hop soundtrack. Very professional.

Effects 85%
P. Excellent explosions and reports add a lot of character to the game.
N. As usual, samples are overused and become repetitive.

Playability 79%
P. The principle of 'anything goes up' leads the game some manic destructive appeal.
N. Simply not as much strategy, freedom or fun as Thunderhawk 2.

Lastability 73%
P. New ideas are incorporated to make the large amount of missions worth ploughing through.
N. Despite nuances, you're performing the same tasks.

Overall 77%
Our expectations are only partly fulfilled - Shellshock trundles rather than rumbles.