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Something has gone seriously wrong here. I don't think that whoever wrote the marvellous piece of fiction on the cassette inlay could have played this game. Either that or the boxes have got mixed up. If that is the case, can I please have the game that should be in this box, Creative Sparks? It looks a lot more interesting than what I've got here.

Black Hawk is the deadliest game, sorry plane, that was ever invented. Your job as a rookie pilot is to seek out and destroy enemy airfields and missile launching sites to the tune of Ride of the Valkyries. The ultimate aim is to destroy the enemy airfield on mission eight.

The inlay contains a lot of guff about sophisticated weaponry and electronic defence systems. What it really boils down to is that there are two different screens. The defence screen comes up when you are under attack - usually from missiles and helicopter gunships.

They attack from the top of the screen, you move black Hawk left and right at the bottom and shoot back. All of this action takes place over an aerial view of the terrain which scrolls from top to bottom. Sound familiar?

The second screen is the attack screen. Here you must use your guided missile system to attack ground-based targets like tanks and anti-aircraft batteries which don't fire on you anyhow. According to the instructions, you should press the fire button, at which point your sight appears. You should then manoeuvre the sight over the enemy target and release the trigger. You have about two seconds to make last minute fine adjustments before the missile hits.

In reality, this only happens with the AA guns. Other targets explode the second they are touched, which makes life a little easier I suppose.

The object of all this carnage is to obtain as high an SLF as possible. SLF, or Strategic Loss Factor, is what we used to call a score. But, blasting everything that moves to oblivion will not, in itself, lead to a high score, sorry SLF. There is the OTPF to be considered.

The OTPF is your On Target Percentage Figure. In other words, it's a measure of how accurate your shooting is. At the end of each mission a high OTPF guarantees you extra weaponry in the ensuing missions, as well as bonus points, I mean a higher SLF.

The problem with Black Hawk is not that it's a bad game. It's far from appalling, and for two quid it's by no means a rip-off. But all the hype on the inlay makes it out to be something it's not. Creative Sparks would probably argue that it adds to the realism of the game. That's fair enough, but it helps if you've got something worth hyping.

The truth is that Black Hawk is a pretty average air combat game that's like a lot of others and is not bad value for two pounds. Why Creative Sparks will come stuck is that you can't afford to get away with average stuff any more, no matter what the price. TTFN!