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Despite the fact that it looked and played like some sort of elaborate PD game, the original version of Jetstrike (AP32, 68%) managed to impress us enough to include it down at the tail end of the Amiga Power All Time Top 100. There was no getting away from the fact that it was flawed through and through, not least with the fact that for every minute of game time, you had to ensure an almost equal amount of disk accessing. Being available on a bright and shiny CD has seen off that problem, but it's still an odd catalogue of quirky idiosyncrasies.

For a start, the between-game graphics are mostly terrible (although there is a pretty good logo you get to see during loading breaks, and it doesn't say the usually irritating 'Loading, please wait' so no marks lost there). The grammar of the mission briefings sucks, with such howlers as "fly out and make them ecology," whatever that might mean, and the radio messages that pop up occasionally ("This is the tower, you're cleared for take-off") sound spookily like a passer-by who's had a tape recorder shoved under his nose. Professional voiceover work this ain't.

The basic game idea is primitive, being only one step above the ancient Spectrum game Harrier Attack, with you flying either left or right across a wraparound screen to shoot or bomb things. There's something tragically wrong with the flying model, which results in places stalling as they turn, or bizarrely hanging in the air, nose up, tail down for anything up to five seconds. This is particularly noticeable during air combat which invariably ends up with the two planes comically and unrealistically circling each other. And the music marks an all-time low for video games, with Top Gun-inspired punchy MOR rock songs written, performed and recorded (we have to presume) by the programmer's friend in his mum's living room. However...

Once you've started playing, it's kind of hard to stop. I think my problem is that it's been programmed by someone dangerously obsessed with the modern military, so instead of ten or twelve planes and a few helicopters, there's pretty much every single modern military aeroplane to choose from, each with suitable sound effects. If you choose the A-10 Warthog for instance (my fave plane), you get a realistic turbine whine and astaccato chainsaw rattling every time you fire the Gatling gun, which certainly made my day, especially when I roared towards a poorly-defended convoy and blew the blooming ["Bejabers" - Ed] out of it.

Although the air-to-air combat's poor, the main game's set around ground attack, which is fearsome fun with huge explosions on land and groovy splashes at sea. You get a number of missions across the same terrain, so taking out targets early on helps you later, and should the prospect of blowing things up bore you, you can always go on to the stupidly hard and hugely entertaining Aerolympics section, which gets you doing dumb things like flying fast jets through narrow tunnels.

Despite all its problems and a few annoying glitches, Rasputin have finally produced a jolly satisfying version of Jetstrike, with the CD cutting down accessing time to the point of welcome invisibility and the new backgrounds and weather effects improving the overall look of it. They've also used the joypad wisely, which gives it a huge user-friendly advantage over the clumsy joystick-keyboard combinations of the original. But best of all, it's just good old-fashioned fun to play. And those explosions - phwoar, eh lads?

Uppers: Even bigger explosions, bonkers missions, hundreds of planes and bombs and lots to entertain the modern military obsessive.

Downers: The music is terrible, there are still some odd glitches in it and most of the in-between screens still need more attention paid to them.

The move to CD has been good for Jetstrike, and once you get past the odd control system (clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation - for flip's sake), you'll have a great time. It's quirky, it's wacky, and I like it lots.