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Big powerful choppers shooting everywhere. Such is the everyday norm of the Steel Talons Corps, a crack fighting unit made up of the greatest helicopter pilots in the world. You play the part of one such lucky pilot, chosen to train and fight with the best.

Firstly, you must complete your education in helicoptering, participating in a series of gruelling tests and some limited combat action before graduating to the ranks of the elite. Once a member of this top flight of crack chopper chaps you are sent on the most dangerous missions in the world, where only your skill, wits and multi-million dollar helicopter gunship keep you alive.

Steel Talons is a conversion of the swish coin-op which takes the player through a number of war zones where you fly around a freeform landscape strafing ground targets and dogfighting with enemy helicopters. The action's vieweed either from the cockpit or from an Afterburner-esque behind-the-heli point, from where your campaign of death is masterminded.

There are two control methods to choose from - Arcade and Real Heli. Arcade mode's much easier and more straightforward, with up pushing your 'copter forward and down bringing it into reverse.

However, in Real Heli, your nose tips once you start forward, and your view tilts accordingly. Similarly, when going backwards, prepare to see nothing but sky as you tilt back! However, Real Heli allows you to fly much higher, and more points are awarded for every mission and kill you make.

Although you can't have two human controlled helicopters flying at once, a friend can join in your game. The second controller duplicates the functions of the other controller with the C button pressed. This means one player steers and shoots, whilst the other player steers and controls the altitude. Although this takes a bit of getting used to it can be quite a laugh when you get the hang of it, for the first few goes anyway...

First stage on the road to success is basic training. Here, you're given a number of tasks to perform. Firstly, you pilot your helicopter through a series of floating rings at various heights. Once this has been achieved the player moves onto three dispersed static targets. Destroy these within a strict time limit and your first trial is over. Now the player progresses onto the first of twelve combat missions, each with its own terrain and weather conditions.

They say a dog is man's best friend and diamonds are a girl's best friend. However, a Steel Talons player's best friend is the C button which controls the thrust of the helicopter and, when used with the appropriate direction on the control pad, allows you to raise or lower your altitude, either up to the maximum ceiling height (as far up as your 'copter goes in other words), or even down to a perfect landing.

The C button also allows you to perform rotational turns on a level plan instead of the usual banking turn, which makes it altogether easier to see where you're going, although it's a bit slower. Pressing C in conjunction with start also changes your viewpoint from inside the helicopter to outside.

Steel Talons was a great coin-op. The graphics were all right and the sound was pretty good, but it was the sheer speed and frenetic action that made it so exhilarating to play. Tengen have made a decent job of converting the sprites, but sadly they've failed to get any of the rest right.

The main problem lies in the jerky controls. Should you press right, there's a slight delay before you actually turn, and when you do the heli just lurches massively to one side.

There's no fine control on turns either, it's just lurch central as you try in vain to get some semblance of servility from the joypad. Needless to say, this, and the ever-so-slow running speed, ruin things utterly. It's such a slog to play it just isn't entertaining at all.

What should be a thrilling, high-speed barrel through a twisting valley becomes a painfully crawlsome blind trudge. The two-player mode doesn't work either, mostly because the controls are bad enough for one player, if someone makes a mistake it's nigh on impossible to rectify it in time.

If Steel Talons were faster and the helicopter could make tighter turns it might be okay, but as it stands it's a load of old pants.

What a pile of old pap! I played it for hours, and can find nothing to commend this traversty of a game whatsoever. Having turned on and switched to Training mode, I was puzzled as to the purpose of the mass of disjointed dots in the centre of the screen. Aah, problem solved, that's the helicopter. After reeling from this disappointment I began to play.

At which point, matters promptly went from bad to worse. The game is about as easy to control as a rabid rhinoceros - jerky, unresponsive and utterly erratic. There's a stack of options which is one thing in its favour, but with such sad animation and dull, slow gameplay, it's unlikely you'll want to plough through them. It's quite neat how you and your targets are pin-pointed on an on-screen chart, or it would be if they weren't too small to see!

Basically, if you give this one a whirl you must be sad and if you fork out £40-odd quid for it you ought to be shot!

Presentation 60%
P. Options and intermissions galore.
N. In-game presentation is dull and cramped.

Graphics 61%
P. Sprites are all right, and the still shots look pretty good.
N. Bleeacchh! The animation is so slow and jerky suspension of disbelief is impossible.

Sound 68%
P. The effects aren't too offensive, and there's loads of tunes.
N. Sadly, the tunes themselves are pretty dull.

Playability 26%

N. Slow and action-free with a control system which makes it impossible to play.

Lastability 32%
P. There's twelve whole missions, plus that head-to-head option.
N. The missions won't last long because they're not too hard, but it's unlikely you'd want to play for that long anyway.

Overall 29%
A seriously bodged attempt at converting a surprisingly convertible arcade machine. A very dark hour indeed.