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By now, I fully expect you to have wrenched the cover-cassette off the front of this magazine, bunged it into your datasette and been astounded by the playability of the Arnie demo. If you haven't done any of these things, you must be some kind of weirdo with your priorities all wrong.

The game has a simple but effective plot. A small green helicopter drops you in a jungle. It then flies off, abandoning you. Instead of getting annoyed and 'phoning for a taxi, you unstrap your AR15 assault rifle and look for some people to shoot (and, ultimately, a nasty evil General to blast away). And that's basically it!

Luckily, you are situated right next to a large camp chock full of enemy soldiers, so you're guaranteed a fire-fight. In fact, seconds after you land, dozens of armed men run towards you, simply asking to be cut down.

Each of the baddies doesn't actually fire that much at you. But before you think that you're getting off lightly, there are so many of them that the bullets start to fill the air. It's pointless simply to stay where you are, blasting away, because you'll just get overwhelmed with enemies. The thing to do is keep moving. Shoot as much as you wish, but don't stop while you're doing it.

Pretty soon, you'll come across some guard posts. It's virtually impossible to kill the people inside these, but as long as you keep out of their line of sight, they shouldn't cause you too many problems.

Occasionally you meet a guy dressed in red. Shoot him and you'll come across a new weapon lying on the ground. Depending on which weapon you've currently got, it'll either be rather useful or incredibly violent. It could be a big machine-gun, a rocket-launcher or a flame-thrower.

Yes, Arnie is a pretty decent game. Once you get the hang, you just can't leave alone. The playing area is large enough for you to try loads of different approaches. One of the best, surprisingly, is to hold back on the firing unless things really do start getting hot.

The graphics are small but neat, and the speed of the whole thing is set so that you can dodge the enemy bullets and just about out-run all the guys as well.

I really like Arnie. Graphically, it's nice but nothing to write to your Granny in Skegness about. But it's just so playable. You become determined to blow up the tanks, people and helicopters that stand in your way, and every time you get a bit further, you want to have another go. Great stuff, and worth a decent score, methinks.

1. Graphics are a little small.
2. Collision detection could be a tad sharper, but it works in your favour.

1. Loads of explosions, blasts, percussions and bombs.
2. It's a big game, with plenty of variety as you go further and further into it.
3. Smooth scrolling, which doesn't hold up the gameplay.
4. You'll also need to use a bit of thought to work out the best way through the puzzles.
5. It's very addictive - just-one-more-go-fever at its best.
6. Wobbly sound actually suits the game rather well.
7. Extra weapons work well, and they are also an incentive to keep playing.