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Sega's amazing 3D sprite-shifting coin-op was a real stunner (if you haven't seen it you'll have to take my word for it) and so it was with some trepidation that I loaded up US Gold's C64 version. While it was loading I remembered playing the arcade machine through to the end. As part of a two-man commando unit, you have infiltrated an enemy base and stolen their new weapon. All you have to do is sneak back out again, cross a few swamps, trundle across the desert and make your way to a waiting transport for the flight home.

Unfortunately, the enemy are on the alert. They throw everything at you - hundreds of men in jeeps, tanks, speedboats, helicopter gunships and finally jet fighters all pop up and take pot shots at you. You are armed with a cabinet-mounted machine gun-cum-grenade-launcher, Op Wolf style, and have to blast everything and try not to get wasted yourself. And that's about it. There are a few pick-ups to make life longer lasting but basically it's finger on the trigger time.

So, just how can that heavy duty action and those amazing 32-bit 3D graphics be emulated by the C64's weeny eight-bit brain? Moments later, I was answered: they can't. Our beloved beige box was doing its best, moving scenery and plonking huge sprites on screen. Sadly, it just wasn't enough. Section one shows some promise, with a smoothly-scrolling corridor and some chunky, but nicely detailed, sprites. But massive glitches on screen and enemies' naff movement (they skate towards you like ghosts) makes it highly unbelievable.

The two-player mode fails miserably at times - player two's cursor is blue, so during the first corridor, your target disappears into the blue floor. Grenade-launching is also handled very poorly. Hit the Shift keys to fire and... nothing happens. Well, a couple of enemies explode in disgust, but there are no grenade-throwing graphics.

The second section is laughable. The action switches outside as you jeep it through a jungle track, lined with trees. I think the screenshot says it all.

Line Of Fire oozes disappointment, from the pathetic death screen (it says 'Game Over' in character blocks), to the multiload (die on level one and you have to load it in again!) to the bugs and occasional crashes (don't pause it too often - it can't cope). If you can ignore the basic visuals (or have a terrific imagination) you can glean some enjoyment from what shoot-'em-up action there is on offer, but let's hope the US Gold/Sega deal bears more fruit with the forthcoming Shadow Dancer. This one looks suspiciously like it's gone off half-cocked.

1. Excruciatingly repetitive gameplay.
2. Appalling glitches litter the screen like opponents refusing to die.
3. Apparently, all the enemy troops are Olympic skaters.
4. Screen update doesn't really work.
5. The fact that your grenades are invisible doesn't help.
6. Enemy troops have to be hit more than once - but it's difficult to tell.
7. The scenery lacks any kind of detail whatsoever.

1. The two-player mode makes the experience of playing the game a little less painful.
2. Some clever 3D programming is hidden away in there.
3. All the original's features.
4. The action is fairly manic.