Charge up the highway and never look back.

Producer: Titus
Four Wheel Drive: £8.99 cass
Author: Gil and Paul

It's the future, the UN has been replaced by squadrons of Thunder Master vehicles. Opposing it is the Intergalactic Liberation Organization which seems equipped with limitless numbers of helicopter gunships, tanks and machine-gun nests. These have already wiped out scores of TM squadrons. With the world's survival in the balance the most powerful Thunder Master is rolled out, and you chosen as its driver. Your weapons are tetranuclear missiles, usually aimed lust ahead of the TM, but after every couple of shots they zoom off into the sky.

If the car is hit it explodes, but miraculously this only reduces the fuel level, which has to reach zero before game over. Fuel can be replenished by driving over cones.

The game consists of three levels (you can choose which to start on) of six conflicts (sections) each. The 3-D scrolling is very fast, the main sprite is well detailed and the enemies impressive.

Unfortunately all the conflicts visually and in play. Difficulty does increase, but only because there's more baddies and less fuel. Also, if you keep to the far right of the screen you hardly ever get hit. If you don't cheat the action is fast and furious, but sadly the title is all too apt - a very forgettable release.

PHIL [59%]

THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: great, well-drawn and fast but little variety
Sound: good engine and fire FX but no tunes
Options: choose level to start on

Crazy Cars with guns is how Fire And Forget struck me. The speed with which everything moves is just as fast, but now there's lots of enemy fire to dodge. On my first few plays I was impressed. But as I got better and better, the game got worse, presenting neither new background graphics nor enemy vehicles. Maybe that's inevitable without multiload, but at this price Spectrum owners should expect more.
MARK [51%]

Titus
£8.95
Reviewer: Jackie Ryan

The time: the future. The place: Earth. The scene: the M25. At least that's what it seems like, what with all the congestion on the road of this new release from Titus.

Boot up Fire And Forget and you'll find yourself behind the wheel of the Thunder Master - the ultimate fighting machine it sez 'ere. Earth is under attack from the Inter Galactic Liberation Organisation (IGLO for short) and apparently the only person who can stop the organisation in its tracks is you. (So much for the Super Powers, eh?) Funnily enough though, before you set off on your mission, your personal pocket galactical transmitter (PPGT for short) triggered a signal that set you in a trance. Just as well really, as no one in their right mind would set off on a mission as unexciting and terribly tedious (UATT for short) as this, I'm sure.

Fire And Forget sends you speeding along a monochrome scrolling roadway in your Thunder Master (an almost indestructible four wheel drive) shooting everything in your sight - mines, roadside bunkers and tanks, rocks, helicopters and the IGLO's own vehicles - they're all legitimate targets. Move left and right and blast away, but don't expect to hit too many helicopters or roadside bunkers, 'cos unfortunately your cannon is fixed. So while you're busily trying to steer your Thunder Master on wickedly windy roads, you'll find it hard to hit anything unless it happens to be in the direction in which you're trying to steer. But you have got infinite fire power, so as long as you don't take too many hits or forget to pick up extra fuel cans along the way (which look remarkably like Christmas trees to the untrained eye) you'll probably win the war. That war that is - but there are another 11 wars to go, all remarkably similar to the first.

And that's the problem with Fire And Forget. Although there's 12 wars to battle your way through before you can claim to have rid the earth of the IGLO, you simply find yourself battling against the same old enemies - only a little faster each time.

If you like scrolling roadway shoot 'em ups that have little action apart from steering and shooting, then this is the game for you. If not - don't fire, just forget it!

Label: Titus
Author: In-house
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Outrun, Overlander, 4x4 Racer. And now Fire and Forget. What do they have in common? Twisting roadways, supposedly exciting gut-wrenching racing action, varying amounts of blasting and a numbing sense of familiarity. Fire and Forget might look good from the screen shots, but decent graphic design and a lot of movement doesn't necessarily make a good game.

Anyoldhow, in FAF the Earth is in turmoil, as the inter-galactic liberation organisation destroys cities and takes other hostage. You take command of Thundermaster, supposedly the planet's most sophisticated fighting machine, but in fact looking more like Jim's knackered banger (fnar) with a machine gun bolted on. You have to complete three levels in each of six warzones in order to defeat the terrorists.

Background graphics, moving objects and scrolling are all well implemented. The road snakes from side to side and up and down as you steer your twisting vehicle along at the highest possible speed. Fuel consumption, which is indicated by a meter at the top of the screen, isn't related to speed, so it's in your interests to go as fast as possible in order to pick up fuel pods as soon as possible. These take the form of pyramidical (eh? - GT) tanks, and are dead easy to pick up; in fact you can hardly avoid them, since they're scattered all over the road. Not much challenge there then.

A bit more intimidating is the range of enemy defences stacked against you. Helicopter gunships appear in the distance and zoom over your head firing wildly; roadside bunkers let fly as you zoom past; mines litter the roadway ahead of you; barbed wire defends the side of the road, and rocks block your way. Each target you blast with your tetranuclear propulsion missiles (guided by undecodable aural frequency and magnetic sustenation MV module with a firepower of 117 gigawatts per second - oh COME ON, who are you KIDDING!?) earns you points, from 5000 for a rock (easy target, see) to 50000 for a tank (almost indestructible). That was a long and convoluted sentence, wasn't it? Are you still with me? Each time you're hit, 10000 points are deducted from your score. If this falls to zero, or if you run out of fuel, the game's over, and jolly grateful you should be too. Despite decent whizz-bang sound FX, Fire and Forget - the term refers to guided missiles, if you haven't twigged - is best fired and forgotten. It's decently programmed and looks nice, but moves too fast for you to feel that you're really in control of what's happening. It's just a case of holding down the fire button, waggling the joystick and hoping you hit something. And that's not much fun, is it lads?

Titus, £8.99cs
Amiga and ST versions reviewed Issue 12 - ACE rating 618

Drive through enemy territory blasting all and sundry. The graphics are good and it's a fast and furious blast, but there's just not enough in it to keep you playing for long.