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Firepower puts you in the driving seat of a tank traversing a huge desert, blowing away anything unfortunate enough to get in your way, with the aim of capturing the enemy's flag.

The desert is spanned by a network of roads which are used to get from location to location. You can drive over the desert but this slows the tank down. It won't be long, though, before you come across hostile gun emplacements, which are easily identifiable as they're a different colour to your own. Fortunately you have the weaponry to dispose of them and, after a few hits from your missiles, they explode to the sound of a sampled "Boom" leaving just a smouldering pile of rubble. In fact, just about every ground feature can be destroyed, one way or another, and there's some serious fun to be had as you trundle around laying waste to anything and everything.

It's important to remember that tanks don't run on fresh air and, if your limited supply of fuel should hit zero, your tank very thoughtfully explodes to ensure that it doesn't get taken by the enemy. Enemy fuel depots are rife, and just waiting to be destroyed in order to replenish your tank's supplies.

By battling through your opponent's heavily guarded territory and wiping out his home base, you can capture his flag, and by returning to base with it, you can sit back in the smug satisfaction that you've completed the mission. That's about all there is to the one player mode, apart from a few sub-tasks such as rescuing your fellow soldiers from the battlefield as they run towards you, and depositing them safely at a nearby medical station.

It's in the two player mode, however, that the game comes into its own. The packaging blurb makes a big thing out of the player vs player mode, and quite rightly so. The display is split into two independently scrolling screens, one for each player, and there's a real sense of competition as you and a friend attempt to blow away as much of each other's territory as possible in your quest for the opposition's flag. What a laugh.

Firepower features some attractively designed and well animated graphics (although the scrolling is a little jerky when you get up to high speed) and plenty of explosions.

The action can prove a little too tedious on your own, but this minor quibble shouldn't put you off indulging in this enjoyable and well executed game. If you were a fan of Jackal or Tank in the arcades and are looking for something of that genre, hang some fluffy dice from your monitor for authenticity and get trundling.