Knight Rider Zzap Review

• Ocean, £8.95 cass, joystick and keys

Michael Knight, Mr Macho and all round do-gooder, has been assigned yet another perilous mission, along with his trusty four wheeled companion, KITT — a remarkable car forming the brains behind the team. Devon, Michael's coordinator, has discovered a group of international terrorists who are threatening to corrupt the amicable relationships between East and West. It is even thought that they are planning to trigger the beginning of the World War III! Devon has instructed Michael and KITT to uncover the plot and put a stop to it — unfortunately, nobody has the slightest idea what the plot really is.

At the beginning of the game you can choose which mission you wish to attempt, such as preventing the assassination of the Prime Minister, the Deputy President and all sorts of high ranking people. There are three main sections to the game. You begin on the map screen which shows several alternative destinations known to be centres of terrorism. A flashing cursor shows which city you are in and can be moved to indicate which city you are going to. If you enter an operations base from the map screen a message scrolls along the bottom of the screen and advises Michael to travel to a certain city. The joystick is used to select a destination, pressing fire takes you to the driving screen.

The driving section has an interesting option — you are able to select whether you take control of the steering or to hand it over to KITT. If you choose not to drive then you take control of the cross-hairs which can be aimed at the terrorist's helicopters which are trying to stop you completing your mission. When you arrive at the next city (there is a counter to indicate how far away you are from it), you can enter the operations base. However, if KITT still tells you that you need to travel somewhere else then you have to go.

Once you arrive at the correct base you then have to attempt to make your way across to the other side of the room, avoiding three or four highly trained killers in the process. The base could be the terrorist's armoury, headquarters, or even the target of their plots. When the screen has been completed a clue to what will happen next appears. This process continues until you have either run out of time or sustained too much damage from enemy fire.