A fully armed helicopter gunship is a truly formidable beast, bristling with all sorts of weapons that fire big pointy things at full speed. They can hover in mid-air, and are highly manoeuvrable. Bring on the video games!

Hang on a second - there aren't really that many helicopter games, are there? In the 80's we had Airwolf and Sega's great coin-op Thunderblade, and then in the 90's there was Desert Strike and its sequels. But it's been a while since we had a really decent one, one that made you feel like the most powerful, scary thing ever.

Fireblade would very much like to redress that situation, but it's not really happening. The main reason for that is the control system, which is something of a shocker, to put it bluntly.

The control system makes use of both analogue sticks, which is something we're big fans of here at Official Xbox Magazine. But the way it uses them is annoying. The Left stick moves your chopper forwards and backwards, and turns it around on the spot, while the Right one is used to adjust altitude, and strafe left and right.

The problem with this is that it's far more common for games to use the Left stick to strafe, as well as move backwards and forwards - and if you're familiar with that setup, getting used to controlling your helicopter in Fireblade really is an utter pain in the arse. Even if you are lefthanded and like to strafe with the Left stick, it'll be a pain. Because rather than having one stick dealing with aiming matters and one with movement, the functions are mixed over two sticks, leading to your brain having a bit of a struggle.

Given that success in the game demands that you be capable of gracefully swishing about the skies while taking out multiple foes, this is a problem. And, disastrously, you can't even change the controls - all you can do is invert the Y axis on the Right stick. This doesn't address the problem at all and the duff controls mean the game doesn't get much of a chance to grab the player because it's so unfriendly to get into. Configurable controls really isn't that much to ask for.

Even if you do persevere past the brain-achingly perverse controls - and it can be done - you won't be too enamoured with the game. Your chopper has absolutely no inertia, making it feel even more clunky, and there's no sense of piloting something weighty and dangerous whatsoever.

The Stealth mode has its problems, too - despite being a nice idea. For a start, the effect that accompanies it involves your ship going transparent, with a blurry filter being applied to everything that can be seen through the chopper. It looks a bit shoddy though, especially when placed against Master Chief's Active Camouflage or the Cloaking found in Phantom Crash.

Fact is, the stealth aspect is not really up to scratch, either aesthetically or in practice. Despite going practically invisible, your helicopter is still spotted frequently, requiring you to take out enemies within a short space of time to avoid failing the mission. Cue frustration, thanks to those wretched controls...

The ropey visual effects can be seen throughout the game at large, too. Piddly Mega Drive bullet effects and Atari ST-esque explosions aren't what we want in our games.

There's just a total lack of occasion to Fireblade. The missions don't do anything new - it's simply a case of protect this, destroy that. That would be fine if it was fun to play, but the controls make it an utter chore. The visuals have the wow factor of an egg timer. It's terrible to think people might spend £45 on this - just make sure you don't, eh?

1. Some good ideas...

1. ...but they're badly executed
2. Appalling controls
3. Spartan graphics
4. Not fun to play
5. Erm... the bullet effects are poor

Power
The visuals have apparently been upgraded for Xbox, but it really doesn't show...

Style
...and there's nothing particularly remarkable about the visual design to report.

Immersion
The frustrating controls could well drive you away from the game for good...

Lifespan
...but, to be fair, there are plenty of missions available if you happen to enjoy the game.

Summary
Duff controls, poor graphics, and no spark make this hell(icopter). Let's just pretend it didn't happen, shall we?