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The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbour not only dragged the US into WWII, but also revolutionized sea power. Until then, battleships were critical to any navy, but almost all America's were sunk at Pearl by carrier-launched aircraft. The American response was based around its own aircraft-carriers, and no-one has bothered to build battleships since.

Nowadays Gruman F-14 Tomcats are the best navy planes, but back in 1944 it was the squat, robust Gruman Hellcat. Six Browning machine guns and a hefty bomb load give it a punch to rival a destroyer's broadside, and you're in the cockpit.

Your carrier is heavily damaged with no Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns or spare pilots. Nevertheless steaming home will take it through lots of action. The game is divided into missions, where the objective is always the destruction of all nearby enemy forces. The first mission features an island base. You can use rockets or bombs to destroy the barracks and AA guns, forcing Japanese soldiers out into the open. If you don't kill them all, they'll take cover in the AA bunkers and start firing at you again. Everyone must be killed to complete the mission. To go onto the next stage, or simply to rearm, refuel and get repairs you need to land on your carrier.

Later missions can have three islands and several ships, including aircraft carriers. After every third mission you're promoted. To sink a ship you must first knock out its AA guns, then make a torpedo run. Of course, the enemy can make torpedo runs against your ship as well. A red arrow warns when an aircraft is attacking: you must either shoot the plane down or destroy the dropped torpedo. Five or six hits sink your carrier, along with any spare planes. There are also enemy fighters, which try to shoot you down.

The game view is the familiar side-on, horizontally scrolling one. However, if you climb above a certain height, the scale drops dramatically, showing your plane as a handful of pixels soaring above an entire island. There's also a small 3D view window in the control panel, especially useful when trying to land on the carrier.

While the game style recalls an early Speccy game, the attention to detail and immense playability suggest a coin-op. The Hellcat is beautifully animated, there's an incredible amount of animation frames making for stunning aerial turns.

Then there's the way the bombs tumble and how the rockets fall then ignite their motors. Playability matches visual detail: the control system is a little odd - pressing up causes a stall - but once mastered provides much more control and realism than you'd expect of an arcade game.

Dogfighting is frustratingly hard, but ground combat is great, requiring practice to master the different weapons. Strafing is best with sand kicking up, enemy screams and a lethal tree always catching your wingtip.

The only drawback is that, as the game progresses, there's more islands, AA guns and ships but nothing dramatically new. But, despite being overpriced, there's a magical playability which makes it worth buying.

C64 disk drive owners in particular should take a look at this nicely-presented game. Although sound is limited compared to the Amiga's smart samples the plane actually moves faster and the slightly jerky scroll is more acceptable.

A great one this, well I would say that being a tad biased towards all things aerial but Wings Of Fury really is fun. It all smacks of Choplifter with little men running around, except this time you're allowed to blast them!

The torpedo runs are good and dogfighting with Zeros is enjoyable (pity I've never shot one down) but it's nothing compared with the thrills of bombing and strafing the Japs.

Everyone who played it enjoyed the island attacks most, it's a shame Broderbund didn't make more of them. The plane itself is extremely good with a nice smoke effect when hit.

Wings Of Fury has the playability to make for a great full-price game but lacks variety for the Amiga. At a full ten pounds less, the C64 game is much better value with not too much disk accessing - although to be honest I'm not as keen on this version as everyone else here. The bombs are a little slow and the men are a bit poor - still the explosions are great and it's worth a look.

Presentation 64%
Save function, save-to-disk high score table and seven skill levels.

Graphics 74%
A few islands, ships and planes don't add up to a lot of variety. But there's some great detail, plus night flying.

Sound 78%
Realistic engine noise, changing with speed, plus impressive weapons FX. Dull militaristic title tune.

Hookability 84%
It's not as easy as it looks, but the controls are soon mastered and addiction becomes complete.

Lastability 74%
More variety would've been appreciated, but numerous skill levels, high difficulty and save option provide compensation.

Overall 78%
An extremely playable shoot-'em-up lacking only variety.

Presentation 67%
Seven skill levels, some nice loading screens and save-to-disk high scores.

Graphics 73%
The plane itself matches the Amiga's for animation, while explosions and weapons are good too. Men are disappointing, but otherwise good and faster than the Amiga.

Sound 34%
There's an okay intro tune, but in-game FX are very basic.

Hookability 84%
As with the Amiga, the controls are soon mastered and blasting the baddies is very addictive.

Lastability 77%
As with the Amiga, more variety would've been appreciated, but it's cheaper and while there's no night flying nothing else seems to be missing.

Overall 79%
A great conversion with a superb main sprite.