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This coin-op shoot-'em-up conversion was one of my favourite ST and Spectrum games ever, but until now I'd never actually played the Amiga versions, which boast the arcade's simultaneous two-player mode and scrolling instead of flick-screen action. This is a very faithful interpretation of the coin-op, but with that game's slightly unwieldy 'rotating-joystick' fire control replaced with a less sophisticated but more usable system.

The game itself features nine varied levels, packed with a wide range of baddies (from cannon-fodder footsoldiers to enormous warships bristling with gun emplacements which make up a whole level by themselves), with appreciably different game skills needed to get through each one. The varying weapons you can buy from the power-up shops between each level add an element of strategy more pronounced than you might think at first, with some levels a lot easier if you select the less obvious add-ons, and the whole thing exhibits a level of atmosphere (crawling through narrow tunnels, blasting squadrons of huge jets against a beautiful sunset, battling tanks on a rickety bridge across a series of waterfalls, ducking under lethal clusters of buzzsaws and climbing precariously up ladders against the face of a massive lava flow) rarely seen in this kind of straightforward arcade zapper.

Oddly enough, the scrolling loses the welcome element of well-judged suspense that was present in the flick-screenv ersions, and the two-player mode doesn't work all that well (it slows the pace somewhat, not for technical reasons but simply because one player is always holding up the scrolling for the other one), but minor moans aside, this is one of the grooviest slices of arcade action you could ask for at this price. Don't try to resist...

Surprisingly less fun than the ST and Speccy versions, but then that's hardly relevant, is it? Great arcade blasting fun, and probably one of The Hit Squad's best.