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Everyone knows James Bond: smart suits, hi-tech gadgets and a clipped English accent. The Spy Who Loved Me, released thirteen years ago, was Roger Moore's third Bond film and concerns an alliance of japery, snogging and espionage between James Bond and Soviet agent Anya Amasova. Their joint mission is to investigate the recent disappearance of a couple of submarines - one Russian and one British.

Microfilm evidence hints that Karl Stromberg - your average power-crazed megalomaniac (flashing eyes, psychotic personality, love of small furry animals, etc) - has been quietly removing the subs from the sea. You (as 007) are despatched to Sardinia to infiltrate Stromberg's underwater fortress (Atlantis), slap the baddies' wrists and find out why he would want to do such a naughty thing.

The computer version converts these plot elements into three individual sub-games (called "scenes" - a nice touch) in which Karl's krazy krew of assorted minions attempt to nobble you. Luckily, help is at hand in the shape of Q-weapons, a natty Q-sub and other Q-gifts (no Q-Tips, though).

The first scene features two race 'n dodge sections, as Bond and Amasova collect a car from Q and travel to the hotel, where they pick up a speedboat to Atlantis. In both, you can collect Q-Tokens for use later on (in the Q-Truck) but you have to avoid enemies - who, jolly unsportingly, fire bullets at you - and obstacles such as large buildings, jetties, cones, and rough ground. There are also plenty of innocent bystanders (and byswimmers) around, and for every one you kill 50 points are deducted from your score. Quite right, too.

The second scene features James and Anya heading back to their hotel after a meeting with Stromberg; unfortunately, Kar's suspicions have been aroused and he orders our hero and heroine killed. Again, this scene is divided into two sections. The first plays a bit like the classic arcade game, Spy Hunter: It's a chase up screen battling against enemies on bikes and in cars - and as long as you've picked up enough Q-Tokens, you can drive into the back of the Q-Truck and take your pick from an impressive array of weaponry. This includes machine guns, missile launchers, submarine capability for the car, smoke gun, paint jet and vehicle armour, as well as the ability to repair the car.

The second section is only accessible if you've bought the submarine conversion gadget: it's a subaquatic shoot-'em-up with weapons such as four-way explosive bolts, 8-way torpedoes and a laser gun. You'll need them all to cripple some of Stromberg's larger defences.

In the final scene, Anya has been taken hostage and Bond has been given one hour to rescue her. Good old Q has flown in a wet-bike and air-dropped packages of goodies so that James can battle his way through the outer defences of Atlantis and save her before the whole place is fried.

Don't be misled: it's not as exciting as it might sound. The scenarios behind each scene are promising enough but the way they've been implemented is poor. For a start, every stage is marred by poor scrolling: it's not only slightly jerky, it's also too slow to convey the sense of high-speed action the game requires.

The graphics are otherwise OK, with plenty of neatly-drawn enemies and backdrops; the sound fares worse, with a monotonously repeated rendition of the Bond theme music. Then there are too few enemies around to cause a real threat: in the first scene in particular you can get away with dodging most of them and collecting Q-Tokens to your heart's content. It's often just a question of remembering where you have to go next.

The best part of the game is the wide array of different craft and weapons: the vehicles all handle well and they need to. The reaction times to some of the obstacles and enemies are very short. Each section has its own atmosphere and different tactics are required to complete them - some are also tough enough to provide a lasting challenge.

The Spy Who Loved Me is a derivative game - there's nothing new about the Spy Hunter-style truck nor the progressive weaponry. But, having said that, it a fair blaster which offers a fair whack of variety and will keep you occupied for a while, as long as you force yourself to ignore the poor presentation.

1. There's a wide range of weaponry for each stage.
2. All the sections have a different atmosphere and a new challenge.
3. There are four different vehicles to control...
4. ...and they all handle very smoothly.
5. Reasonable difficulty level.
6. Neatly-drawn miniature sprite graphics.
7. Q's truck gives you plenty of tactics to get your teeth into.

1. Jerky scrolling
2. Lack of inter-level variety
3. Not really fast enough for a shoot 'n chase game
4. A couple of the sections just require you to learn the route.
5. Apart from the underwater scene, graphics don't come to life.