It's a jungle out there - and you're in the thick of it. As the army’s leading sniper, you've been drafted in to give covering fire to one of your medics. This brave MASH-type person trundles along railway lines in a hand cart, tending the wounded GI's who stand by the track, looking knackered and waving a white flag.

Your medic automatically pumps the cart, and it is your job to protect him from the advances of the enemy who crawl out of the undergrowth and attack from all sides, hurling grenades and boomerangs or shooting bullets and missiles. Fancy attacking Red Cross personnel like that. What about the Geneva convention! Once the wounded have been miraculously healed, they disappear leaving tokens behind which you can shoot to collect. The helmet offers protection against the special forces' weapons; the first aid kit reduces damage sustained by the medic; and the smart bombs could tell you all sorts of interesting snippets of information - if they weren't busy blowing up all the enemies on screen, that is. As the medic continues on his mission of mercy, you have to blast the enemy soldiers, their missiles and also any land mines that have been planted on the rails (oh, and try not to hit your GI's or the medic - it doesn't do them any good at all!). Your medic can survive about three hefty hits but after that he's wormbait. Next!

VERDICT

Cor! A cheapie Light Phaser cart - can't be bad. Well, no it's not exactly bad, just a mite limp. It looks and sounds fairly average: there's some nice animation on the medic as he pumps the cart, but the tinkly background tune is hopelessly unatmospheric and more in line with the Railway Children than tense jungle warfare...

More to the point is the fact that the gunsight isn't very accurate (no playing this from six feet away!). You can't fire very quickly and are unable to hit things near the edge of the screen. Not only that, but the game is a) very hard and b) very boring. After a while you start wasting your own men, just to liven things up!

It's not really that horrendous, and if you're utterly desperate to get hold of a new 'Phaser game this should just about fit the bill. Just don't expect too much.

GRAPHICS

52%

SOUND

38%

DEPTH

23%

ADDICTION

45%

S-FACTOR

49%

Neat but dull shoot 'em up. OK for librarians, boring people and Phaser junkies beyond help!

Rating

49

Reviewer

S: The Sega Magazine

Region

UK

Scans

STheSegaMagazine-Magazine-Issue08?gallerypage=9

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