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It seems that game ideas are now well and truly beginning to dry up. Guerrilla War, Ocean's new signing contains nothing that hasn't been seen before.

Plot: A two man commando team fighting insurmountable odds against the forces of a vicious dictator and all this minions. The dictator's name probably begins with Z and doesn't have a lot of vowels in it. Done before in Ikari Warriors.

Gameplay: Five multi-loaded levels of blasting action along an upwardly scrolling jungle area (Commando) with a bit of left-right scrolling to provide a larger play area (Flying Shark). You can select either directional control or rotational control (Ikari Warriors, again). Rotational control means that you can turn the main character and make him fire in any of eight directions, regardless of the direction of movement. You are armed with a basic rifle, but can also use grenades to fire over obstacles or to clear the way through walls, fences or any other type of normally impassable objects (Commando, Who Dares Wins 2, almost everything else really). Some of the enemy, when shot, leave behind an item of more powerful weaponry (Nemesis) such as rocket launchers and flamethrowers.

Graphics: Large, chunky, badly coloured and lacking in variety - generally dire. (Sadly, similar to many other games.)

Sound: Choose whether you want to have sound effects or music (nearly every C64 game ever). Music is dull, grating and repetitive. Sound effects are sparse and simplistic.

Playability: A major downer. The sticky response time and poor collision detection make getting anywhere frustratingly hard.

Not only is Guerrilla War a very poor conversion (there are no tanks for you to climb into - why not?), it's also a very poor game in its own right. Maybe the next one will be good. Either way, give this one a wide berth.

The one single, original aspect of this game is that proud owners of the Cheetah 125 joysticks have the option to make use of its rotational function and extra 'smart-bomb' button. This would be great if Guerrilla War was actually worth loading up in the first place.