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After Burner was one of the arcade smash hits last year on many formats, and has now managed to make its way on to the CPC at long last. You pilot an F-14 Tomcat, armed with laser cannons and air-to-air missiles. Your mission is simple - just shoot anything which moves. While doing this you will encounter a number of enemy aircraft, including other fighters and helicopter gunships. If you survive the first barrage of enemies you will encounter a re-fuelling aircraft and proceed to the next level. All the levels are fairly similar, with occasional differences such as day or night backdrops and forest or desert landscape.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, the Amstrad version of After Burner suffers from a lack of it. It is not that there is little variation in the theme - there is no real control over your F-14. All you need to do is dodge the occasional missile, keep your cannons firing and fire missiles when your computer locks on to an enemy aircraft.

Doing this will allow you to survive level after level. Even the roll option of previous versions does not seem to be fully implemented! Following the instructions in the manual does not work with this. In fact, to perform a roll seems to be more a fluke than any skilful manoeuvre.

The graphics are mediocre; they are very similar to the arcade original but still tend to be boring and repetitive. Sound is virtually non-existent, with the occasional bang or squelch. Even the title sequence suffers in the audio department.

After Burner has proved to be something of a turkey on the Amstrad, which is a pity because some versions, namely the Sega console version - have been good. What happened, Activision?