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They don't take namby-pambies or wimps in Cobra Command. If you want to join you have really got to prove yourself. The sideways-scrolling assault courses on which you could qualify as a member of the elite is viewed from the comfort of a high-tech, eight screen video console at HQ. Your soldier makes his way through the gruelling terrain on the bottom four screens of the display while the CO shouts his orders from a screen at the top right.

Course One is fairly straightforward. Scamper along, jumping over objects hidden in the grass, scaling walls, bounding over obstacles and shuffling through crawlways on your tum. But listen out for the CO's orders - if he demands press-ups you'd better get on your face and give him five pretty quick. Dive to the ground when he calls out an air alert, or bullets from the sky will rip and ruin your designer camo. Then there's Rex, battle-dog extraordinaire with teeth as sharp as razors - leap onto an overhead way and move forward hand-over-hand or Rex will ruin your trousers and trash your score.

Scoring is quite straightforward - you collect points for making progress and even more points for successfully achieving objectives or tasks. Mistakes cost points, which are knocked off your running total, and to begin with it's difficult to hold on to any points at all. After an attempt at running one of the gauntlets, you can use the command console to replay the video that was automatically filmed while you legged it down the track. Fast forward, pause and slow-motion modes allow your triumphs and tribulations to be examined and analysed in detail.

The second course on the training menu gets a bit risky - you have to start messing around with explosives. Mines are hidden under tufts of grass, and a careful lookout has to be maintained to avoid being the star attraction of a pyrotechnic display. Grenades are scattered around the place as well, and to collect maximum points you have to pick them up and hurl them before they explode in your hand. Rex the dog is still out of his kennel, and some maniac has got behind a machine gun and thinks it's fun to rake the ground around you...

And for afters, you get the ultimate test. Tough guys who have already passed their physical exams and joined the Cobra Command are waiting to give rookies hell as they negotiate the obstacles. Some of these hard guys have machine guns, while others are unarmed and insist on engaging you in a punch-up. By this stage, Rex has been getting hungry, the maniac with the machine gun more manic and the CO's temper is wearing thin. Only the real men get to survive the third combat course.

Once you've mastered the three-stage training, you can go on to develop an assault course or two to your own design.

Entering the construction mode gives you total control over the placement of scenery, obstacles, traps and hazards. Create a course and you can save it to disk for later use. Designer training comes of age... and you can torture your friends on fiendish training missions of your own design.

The video console concept, with the playback facility, sets Action Service a few pegs above other Decathlon-inspired army training games. The action is compelling enough to test the mettle of any arcade-inspired would-be soldier, and the sound effects add to the atmosphere of sweat and effort. Blood lovers will be disappointed, however, your soldier refuses to die or be dismembered no matter how tough the going gets. And even if you get thoroughly expert at all three on-board missions, the construction kit is rewarding to use in its own right allowing hundreds and hundreds of infinitely varied courses to be created for your entertainment. Action Service is to assault course simulations as Macadam Bumper is to pinball games. Hours of fun...

Development on the Amiga and PC versions of Action Service is now underway in France. Infogrames in the UK has a provisional release date of mid-September for release across all formats.

By then it will probably be the ST game on sale with the others following sometime in October. No news yet on any variation in in game design or play. Stay tuned...