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This game is so completely and unutterably boring I don't even think it's worthy of a good slagging. But our duty is to inform, so here goes.

NATO Assault Course is the third combat school clone to appear so far and it's by far the worse.

The basic game is timed against the clock. IT's one of those split screen efforts with you on the top and your computer opponent below - a sort of brawny version of University Challenge. Progress is made through the course by the old tried-and-trusted waggle-like-a-loony method. Your little man, decked out in full combat gear, begins to walk then progresses into a slow trot until he meets the first obstacle - a low wall. The idea is to jump onto the wall, run along it, then jump off the other end. Bad timing results in such painful damage to your kneecaps that you pass out for a few seconds before getting the chance to make another attempt.

Walls aren't the only completely boring obstacles in your path. Next up is the barbed wire which you have to crawl under on your belly. Pulling the joystick down puts your man into crawl mode - it goes without saying that you don't stand up until you get to the other end. Once you're through the barbed wire you'll be anxious to make up for lost time and catch up on the computer opponent, who is by now about five miles in front. Bursting into a slow jog, you will encounter the next thrilling obstacle - the slippery oil which will cause you to fall on your bum - I bet this is just like the real thing.

Now we get to the really dangerous stuff - dummy targets that actually shoot at you. These bullets won't kill you, they just stun you for a few seconds - watch the clock tick away as the screen goes black. Your only defence against the shooting targets is the amazing hand gun. So called because it looks like the bullets are actually coming out of your index finger.

Further incredibly dangerous and exciting things that get in your way include flaming oil drums, quicksand, mud, swimming pools, rope ladders and more brick walls. Failure to negotiate any of them results in four or five seconds of blank screen during which you can watch your opponent get further and further ahead.

Should you get tired of competing against the clock (heaven forbid) you can choose to play any one of four army opponents, all of whom have identical bonehead features to the rookie under your control. The best - Colonel T Jones Forsythe - flies over the obstacles like he was born doing it, I decided there was more to be gained from watching Jones Forsythe than actually playing the game myself.

If you don't find the course tedious enough already, you can make up still more of your own using the course editor. But you'd have to be a masochist to do that.