IS there life after Interceptor, the game which apparently has it all? Surprisingly the answer is yes. That erstwhile Electronic Arts program treads the middle ground between flight simulation and airborne combat game, with Flight Simulation II cleaning up on the straight simulation front.

Sky Chase is one of the first releases from Image Works, the new Mirrorsoft label and is very much in the Top Gun mould of airborne conflict. "Never mind the realism, count the bullets" is the order of the day here.

Never mind the plot or objective either, in this game the action starts with two oppositions - any combination of human against computer simulated players - hurtling towards each other. As soon as the planes cross control is handed over to the pilots and may the best Tom Cruise lookalike win.

Each player has an independent three dimensional view, with fast moving wire frame graphics. Well they are fast if you don't select the complex terrain grid from the host of options, and let's face it, there isn't much of the screen being manipulated. There is no hidden line removal, so the graphics should be fast.

All the parameters are available, and range from giving you a choice of fighters. F/A 18 Hornet, F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle, F-16 Falcon on the American side or MiG-31 Foxhound and MiG-27 Flogger on the USSR side, in tinkering with weapons supplies, timings and the effects of G-force.

The action continues, with a brief pause every time a player gets nailed, until one player runs out of fuel, the winner being whoever has scored most points. This means that if you shoot your opponent more times than he shoots you you're laughing.

But there is the problem of the ground. It's hard. Hitting it full speed is not only painful, it hands over points on a plate. Equally climbing to over 50,000 feet or flying beyond the terrain boundaries have a similar result.

A quick peek at the weapons supplied for this modern duel in the sky tend to support the assertion that this is simply a fun flying game. Your super advanced piece of Air Force real estate has twin cannon and the ability to launch missiles. The witty chaps who coded Sky Chase have made these look like Amiga bouncing balls.

Your only defence against these twin threats is speed and manoeuvrability. Either use them or find broken bits of plane showered across the screen. Even on the easy level the computer flyboys are a tough bunch.

The appeal of downing faceless opponents, especially when the explosion - unlike the rest of the effects - are so wimpish, tends to pale before long.

Drag a comrade into the fray though, and the fight becomes that bit more personal, that much more fun. On this level the slightly dated look to the graphics doesn't detract from the fast, furious, and pretty enjoyable, chase through the sky.

The first release from Mirrorsoft's new label Imageworks is an air-to-air combat simulation imported from the States. Modelled on US Air Force and Navy flight school training competitions, Sky Chase offers would-be aces a choice of seven aircraft with which to engage in head-up confrontations.

Anybody remember Top Gun? No, not the film, Ocean's official tie-in was released about eighteen months back on the Spectrum and Amstrad but never quite made it onto the 64. Well, although it wasn't a particularly good game, it did have one novel feature. The screen display was split vertically into two independent cockpit screens, allowing two players to participate in a 'one-on-one' aerial dogfight.

Now that idea has been revamped in Skychase, Mirrorsoft's first Amiga release on their new Image Works label. There's no plot, storyline or scenario to speak of, just plain and simple air combat action against another player or the computer.

As I mentioned earlier, the screen display is split vertically down the middle, with each player having his own view from his plane. Each display consist of the obvious visual cockpit screen and a variety of gauges, indicating factors such as speed, altitude, ammunition and so on. In addition there's a tactical map of the playing area so you can see exactly where you are in relation to your opponent.

Combat begins with a computer controlled flyby sequence in which the two planes shoot by each other before control is handed over to the players. The game takes place over a large wireframe grid set onto the ground below, and gives an effect not dissimilar to Novagen's Mercenary.

The two planes are also drawn using the standard vector graphics technique. The aim of the game is simple: blow your opponent out of the sky as many times as possible thus accumulating a higher score before your fuel runs out and the game ends.

This is done by simply zooming around the game grid and trying to get directly up the bot of your opponent where you can open fire on him. Weaponry comes in two basic forms, cannons and missiles. Cannons are fairly basic weapons with a reasonably long range, and quite effective if your target is twisting and turning trying to evade your fire as you can just strafe it with a long burst of fire.

Missiles are also quite effective, but not in as many situations. To lock a missile onto a target, get within close range and a tracking cursor will appear on screen. If you can get this in line with your own cross-hair, you can let off a missile which will hit 99% of the time, providing your opponent doesn't barrel-roll out of range at the last second.

An interesting twist to Skychase is the way you can effectively redesign the entire game by altering variables on the title screen until it suits you. You can choose from several types of planes, including F-14s, F-16s, MiGs (the bane of my life) and even Paper planes! You can also change weapon loads for each player, as well as missile lock ranges and cannon impact tolerance (but only well 'ard Interceptor vets like me should muck around with these settings). The amount of fuel, and subsequently the length of the game can also be changed.

Game-designing frills aside, Skychase is a pretty mundane attempt at an arcade flight sim.
Graphically, the game is enough to turn you into a manic depressive, as there's nothing on the screen except the sky (the blue bit), the ground (the green bit) and the grid, which is only there to point out that you are actually moving. Very rarely do you get close enough to your opponent to pick out any detail on his plane.

Sound too is dreary (dull engine sounds and boring title page music do not bring me to the height of aural excitement). What annoys me most about Skychase is the way that the computer behaves so realistically. Unlike a real flight game like Interceptor where enemy MiGs pitch and roll with the greatest expertise to avoid your attacks, the computer plane in Skychase is quite happy to let you blow him away with practically no evasive manoeuvres.

However, that's a nitpick at the 1 player option. It's the two player game where all the enjoyment is to be gleaned, as here at least you're against a competent opponent (unless you're playing against Tony Dillon).

For this reason, I would only advise you to consider buying Skychase if you have a chum to play it with. The computer mode is boring, too easy and ultimately a drag to play.

I was going to start this review by telling a joke about The Village People singing 'In The Air Force' but I didn't think it was very funny, so I won't. I'll talk about the game instead (Yeah, good idea, Maff - Ed).

Sky Chase is set in Fightertown USA (no, I've never heard of it either) where new Air Force recruits are trained. You take the part of one of these recruits as he embarks on a flight test which consists of head-to-head aerial dogfights set within a restricted area.

Obviously, the Air Force don't want to have expensive planes destroyed by rookie pilots blasting each other out of the skies (the paperwork for trainees killed is horrendous) so all the flying takes place on computer simulators against the machine or another cadet in one of seven types of aircraft: from an FA/18 Hornet to a paper aeroplane (believe it or not).

The display shows a first person view from the chosen fighter with your opponent displayed as a wire frame plane in your display - plus the view from their plane. If you think you're suitably hard, you can switch off the computer's display in one-player mode and rely purely on instruments only to catch the enemy.

Along with the choice of plane, various other options can be changed on the title screen. They include grid size, G-force tolerance, bullet strike area and other details.