Your mission in this game is to score as many points as possible by destroying enemy craft, fuel depots and bridges before your jet runs out of fuel or crashes.

The River of No Return is divided into sections. Along the river your jet will encounter islands, narrow channels, bays and enemy air and water craft moving in to block your path. Along with the picture of the river and your craft, also on the screen you will see your reserve jets and the fuel gauge.

Your jet fighter can bank to the left or right, and it can slow down or accelerate. It can also fire missiles continuously or intermittently.

Advanced pilots may start the game at later bridges, which means the difficulty level is higher. Later in the game your plane will fly over barren stretches of river that are too narrow for enemy camps. This means the pilot gets a break because he will encounter only a few enemy craft, but fuel depots are scarce and the river is narrow.

In the instruction booklet it states that flying through the forest, on either side of the river, is good practice and adds to the game. With the cartridge and booklet you also receive two overlays - although these never seem to fit in the hand controllers.

In the last issue of Games Computing I had a look at the Colecovision version of River Raid. This version I found much more exciting than the Intellivision game. The Intellivision River Raid is easier to play although it tends to drag on because of its repetitiveness.