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This first release from French software house Titus is set in the far flung future. A conference of all world leaders is being held in the city of Megapolis, and the outcome of this historic event could be world peace. Hurrah! However, a ruthless gang of terrorists is driving towards the city with a large nuclear bomb and they intend to blow up the whole place - leaders and all - and then take over the world during the following confusion.

There's only one person who can save the day - and that's you! So grab the keys to your 850 horse power deathmobile, the Thundermaster II, arm its guns and missiles and take to the highway and destroy the villains before they complete their foul mission!

The 3D action is viewed from behind your car, and the object is to race down the road (or fly for a limited period of time if you manage to run over the special fuel cannisters), catch up with the convoy leader and destroy it. The ultimate aim is to destroy the bomb-carrying convoy leader on the fifth level.

Between you and the convoy leader is a load of other baddies, all of who want to trash your lovely vehicle - so avoid their shots and blast them before they crash into you!

A distance meter ticks down as you zoom along, so you know how far ahead the leader is, and once he's in your sights you can let rip with your missiles. When he's destroyed you move onto the next, more difficult level - can you make it to level five and save the world?

Occasionally red fuel canisters are found on the road. Run over these and you'll be able to take off for a few seconds and blow up any flying baddies - or avoid the deadly gun emplacements found at the side of the road!

There are five different trucks to destroy - here's a list of them all.

1. Armoured Fuel Truck Carries fuel for the rest of the convoy.

2. Mine Dropper Watch out when approaching 'cos this sucker drops mines.

3. Radar Vehicle A fairly easy target - the convoy's information centre. j

4. SWTO8/Q Missile Vehicle Deploys ground to ground missiles so take care.

5. Head Vehicle Convoy leader, and the truck which carries the nuclear bomb.

The Thundermaster II might be the most wicked mega-powered four-wheeled vehicle of doom, but it doesn't half guzzle petrol. A fuel gauge ticks down whenever the car is moving, and if it reaches zero you lose a life.

How do you keep going? Easy - you just run over the fuel cannisters that appear after you've destroyed certain baddies!

Fire And Forget II is one of the first games to be simultaneously launched on two consoles, in this case the Sega Master System and Amstrad GX4000. The basic plot and the way the game works is the same on both machines, but the actual execution is very different between them.

The Sega comments and ratings are high. The GX4000 comments and ratings, well, compare the two and see what we mean.

I played Sega Fire And Forget II first, and had high hopes for this - after all, the GX4000 console features a load of hardware chips, and therefore this version should be even better!

However, all I can say is the programmers must not have used them! This version is dire... in the extreme. The scrolling is jerky, the car moves and responds like a badly crippled slug, the road update is juddery and unconvincing, and most of the sprites look like marauding blue cabbages!

All these factors piled together make for a game that's about as much fun as having your teeth pulled out. In fact, the only good thing I've got to say is that GX4000 software surely can't get any worse than this.

Deary me, what an awful effort to be one of the very first Amstrad GX4000 games! This is so much worse than the Sega game, it could (and probably should) be a different game.

The scrolling is atrocious, the road doesn't meet the horizon, and the steering is very slow to respond. Amstrad GX4000 Fire And Forget II delivers an insipid, two-dimensional challenge that'll have you nodding off in a matter of minutes. One to be avoided like the plague, methings.

Presentation 75%
Crummy title screen, a few in-game screens, but no options.

Graphics 43%
Rubbish sprites, jerky scrolling and dreadful 3D update.

Sound 71%
Pretty good tunes and fairly good effects.

Playability 37%
The unbelievably sluggish controls and dreadful visuals make playing this a chore.

Lastability 21%
Completing the game is hard, but it's so bad you won't even want to bother.

Overall 33%
An utterly dreadful game in every respect. Even if you're desperate, wait for better GX4000 games to come along.