James Bond 007

Your vehicle's a James Bond special: it can fly straight up in the air, dive below the water and packs lasers for knocking out airborne targets and flare bombs for underwater foes. Scenes from Bond films form the basis of the four missions, all staged on horizontally scrolling screens. In Diamonds Are Forever, you bounce across a crater-pocked desert, avoiding bombs from indestructible satellites and blasting away at big diamonds in the sky.

Success leads to an ocean scene, where these enemies are abetted by frogmen firing from below. The goal is to land on a floating oil rig that's visible only by the light of the exploding diamonds, so sharp timing and reflexes are vital. The rest of the missions, from Moonraker to For Your Eyes Only, also take place at sea, against everything from space shuttles to mini-subs and helicopters.

The different missions and variety of enemy weapons make Bond an exceptionally challenging shoot-em-up. It's also interesting to have a definite purpose at the end of each mission, instead of simply shooting everything that moves. Graphics and sound are simple but the action's intense all the way. No bonus ships are granted but you don't have to start over from the first screen when you get wasted. A high-score display would have been nice. Two skill levels. Two-player option.