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According to the scenario, the countries of the Middle East have long been in a state of economic and social ruin due to violent civil war. Baddies have united to form an unholy alliance dedicated to kicking sand in the faces of innocent, freedom-loving citizens.

So who can save us all from a fate worse than a Saturday afternoon at Halifax Town FC? Wait a minute - there's always the UN Squadron! A round of applause please for Mickey Simon, Greg Gates and Shin Kazama. Mickey is a bit of an American meat-head who zips about the skies in his personal F-14 Tomcat, armed with 20mm Vulcan Cannon. Greg is from Denmark and used to earn his living by helping hostages from all over Europe; he's now settled into peace-keeping role in an A-10 Thunderbolt, ratting out rounds from his gatling gun and priding himself on his ground attack capabilities. Shin is a Japanese F-20 Tiger Shark pilot: his plane has a higher firing rate than the other two.

From this trio you select the pilot of your choice according to how you like to play. If you've opted for a two-player game, your partner chooses one of the other fliers and you undertake the missions together. Both players waddle over to the UN Shop, where a variety of guns and gadgets are on offer. Hardware costs huge wads and, without the readies, there's no firing fun 'n frolics. Destroying end-of-level enemies substantially improves the bank balance and allows you to purchase juicier items.

If you're happy with your choices, you can tackle the ten missions. Each one is unique: the first, for example, is set in an enemy installation guarded by anti-aircraft guns, fighters and tanks and concludes with an encounter with a giant mobile rocket launcher. This generates an impression of variety in the gameplay which isn't really there: many of the enemies recur in different levels, and the few new opponents are never very challenging.

This boils down to a multi-level scrolling shoot-'em-up which doesn't add much to the brilliant games already in the field. Everything about it is unspectacular: the backgrounds are nicely drawn, the sprites are neat and the end-of-stage opponents can be impressive - but there's nothing to delight hardened shoot-'em-up fans. The game suffers noticeably from repetition, because there is nothing in your opponents' activity to generate excitement: no intelligent movement and some pretty pathetic weaponry. It's a better game in two-player mode and the variety of weapons helps, but if you're used to quality blasters the appeal soon wears off.

1. Predictable enemy patterns and poor end-of-stage opponents.
2. Unoriginal gameplay won't be appealing to fans of the genre.
3. Occasional screen glitches interrupt the action.
4. Audio visuals are jarringly average.

1. Nine different weapons, including lasers, bombs and spray missiles.
2. Ten missions, each with unique background graphics.
3. Smart presentation screens.
4. Three different types of plane to fly, each with different capabilities.
5. Good joystick-only controls.
6. Simultaneous two-player game mode.