Sign up to the SeaBlade Corps for no particular reason and take to the skies in anger! You're part of an elite flying brigade tasked with liberating the people of the world, flying through banal checkpoint missions and quite possibly dying of boredom for your country.

SeaBlade is a fairly stock arcade flying game. You pilot atmospheric craft which can seamlessly dive underwater, triggering a crescendo of whale song and tranquil Jacques Cousteau-esque music. You'll rescue hostages, engage in dogfights and destroy legions of anti-aircraft weapons in the battle for a water-drenched planet.

You are given your instructions in cartoonish rendered still frames with voiceovers. The production values here start to give you a picture of the kind of budget SeaBlade was produced on. It's not exactly Hollywood, let's say. This sombre realisation continues when you reach the actual gameplay - while the craft models and animation are undeniably good, the game environment and effects are seriously underwhelming. This is one of those unfortunate situations where not all the parts of the game could rise to the same level.

The key feature is the ability to dive underwater whenever you like. Unfortunately, this aspect is at best a gimmick. There isn't any good reason to dive and the game isn't made significantly more interesting or challenging because of it. The underwater sections serve as a direct extension of the open-air areas, with scarce adjustment required in the way you pilot the craft or the activities you undertake.

SeaBlade follows many arcade conventions of the past. For example, power-ups behave in a very old-skool fashion, in that you can only have one weapon equipped at a time, and collecting more than one icon for that weapon upgrades its destructive power. It takes some getting used to, in this age of complex objectives and massive arsenals. The flight model has also been dumbed down to pure simplicity.

Strangely, SeaBlade is inordinately tough for a fluffy action game, even on easy difficulty. You are hardly given a chance to get accustomed to the controls and game environment before you're mercilessly attacked. Not that we're complaining - we've completed many a hardcore action title that was eye-wateringly difficult. But this game really makes you pay. And pay, and pay.

It's not exactly impossible, but progressing through the game requires such a studied, anally retentive effort than you might as well be reading chemistry textbooks. It's so tough that we'd argue most people won't find it entertaining. And to top it all off, there isn't even any spectacular cutscene footage, really great effects or genuinely interesting story developments to motivate your interest in progressing. There are other shooters on the market that are more deserving of your cash. Stick with them.

1. Good models and animation

1. Obviously derivative
2. Horrendously difficult
3. Mediocre cutscenes
4. Effects are poor
5. Story is pants!

Power
Models and animation are pretty good but SeaBlade falls down in other areas.

Style
Nothing remarkable. This is your bog-standard arcade dogfighting shooter clone.

Immersion
Gameplay is intense, due to the punishing difficulty level. You'll throw the pad across the room.

Lifespan
Thirty-nine missions await, but that really is 39 too many. This will gather dust on the shelf.

Summary
There are equally challenging, better looking and much more enjoyable arcade shooters on the market, such as Yager.