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Wear your badge with pride in the thug-infested streets of Cyber City.

You certainly picked the wrong time to become a rookie cop in downtown Cyber City. The crime rate is soaring and cop killing is becoming a favourite pastime for the criminal element.

So what are you going to do about it? Your best. That's all you can do. Starting off as a regular member of the Special Weapons and Tactics squad, your first duty is to get out on the streets and show your superiors that you're up to the job.

You're on your own. Watch out for the neat sequences as you pull up in your squad car with your sirens blaring, then go do your stuff.

This 'stuff' consists mainly of strutting down the streets taking potshots at anyone who comes near you, be they skateboarding hoodlums or knife-throwing maniacs.

Finish off three levels and you get your promotion to the E-Swat team, picking up the special cybernetic exosuit and laser cannon to go out and do more of the same.

Surviving the first three levels is not over difficult. Just remember to pick up the spare ammo lying around, dodge and weave a bit, and you'll soon find yourself facing the end-of-level bad guy.

Kill a couple, rescue a damsel in distress and you're through. As you progress into the E-Swat squad, things do hot up a bit, as the hoodlums bring out the heavy armoury. Be sure to avoid the grenades, or a few hits could lead to the mortuary.

The game itself contains some pretty neat graphics, but doesn't provide too much of a challenge on the early stages. As a pure shoot-'em-up, E-Swat will certainly give you plenty of opportunity to vent your anger against your opponents, but the scrolling isn't really fast enough to create the tense atmosphere to go along with the storyline.

Try and keep some distance between yourself and the bad guys. If they come in too close, you can't get your gun up in time and fire off those all-important rounds.

When you can, make sure there's somebody there to shoot at, otherwise you'll run out of ammo and find yourself in a real jam.

So there you have it. Not a bad example of a horizontally-scrolling shootie, with a couple of platforms thrown in for good measure, but nothing to sell your hamster for.