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After Who Dares Wins II, Commando and Rambo, another of the arcade warfare games makes the transition to the small screen. Unlike the others this one gives a rather more 2D view of the action and your task is to move to the right rather than up the screen. However the overall concept is quite similar - you are the sole representative pitted against unthinkable odds whose task is to kill as many of the opposition as get in your way while trying to get as far as possible in order to release captured allies.

You start armed only with a knife while some of your opponents have rifles. Contact with any of the heathen masses means instant death, the consequent loss of one of your lives and return to the start of the current section. In the first part of the game you have to battle across a number of linked bridges. As you reach the right hand edge of the screen the action ceases temporarily while the screen is scrolled to the left bringing the next screen in to view. On each screen there are two levels, periodically linked by ladders. You can sometimes climb or descend these ladders in order to avoid a bullet or one of the other soldiers.

Movement is either by redefinable keyboard option or joystick. Upward movement while not at the base of a ladder causes your man to jump, which again is useful for avoiding death. Downward movement causes your man to lie flat on the ground which can be useful for avoiding a flying drop kick.

There are three types of foe. First are the rather dim greeny/brown clothed soldiers who stick to one level and travel in only one direction. They are quite easily avoided if you are not being chased and points can be gained by stopping for a second and using the fire button to thrust your knife into them.

It is not absolutely necessary to stop, but it does make the timing of your thrust easier to judge. This first type of baddy look a bit like rather fat landlords from a German bierkeller and it is difficult to take them as a serious threat.

The orange/blue outfitted soldiers look a lot more serious and they are certainly a greater threat. Not only do they carry rifles and periodically stop to shoot a bullet at you, but they will also turn to follow you and will even go up and down ladders after you. The third soldier you see early on is the Commandant who looks more like a plumber in blue overalls.

I thought Who Dares Wins II was quite a good battle game but I think this one might just have the edge. The gameplay isn't identical but anyone who loves killing anything that moves is going to like this.

The outfits of the opposing soldiers sometimes look quite comical but I love the drop kicking Cossacks at the end of the bridge section.

As always, I think the game might have looked better in the higher resolution Mode 1 but good use is made of the colours in Mode 0. The sound was nothing to write home about but I can't say I'm ever that bothered about it anyway.

The game is certainly very addictive and although I haven't, got too far yet I still keep going back to see if can get a little further. I think I'll have to find an infinite lives poke before too long.

I think that taking on an infinite number of soldiers armed only with a flame thrower is a lot of fun. You can fire a ball of flame and then follow it so that lots of men get killed. Not a game for the squeamish.

This game has the manic quality of a real arcade machine. The constant action requires enormous concentration and fast reflexes. I think it's all too much for me. I just can't get anywhere.