Siberian Strike

Ask around and the general perception is that life is tough in Russia. From the sub-zero temperatures and lengthy bread queues to the uncompromising secret police, the feeling is that everything's just that bit more hardcore than anywhere else. Heck, even their potato-fermented booze has more bite than most spirits! Hence, it is perhaps only fitting that Siberian Strike offers one of the sternest action challenges of any mobile shooter we've yet played.

Sure, things seem simple enough to begin with. There you are merrily zipping around in your WWII fighter plane taking pot shots at the errant enemy aircraft that parade before you like ducks at the fairground. Quite rapidly, however, the opposition start to twig that maybe lining up in a slow predictable formation isn't the best way to go about things. It might be a better idea, they soon realise, to move about a bit, occasionally fire back, and invite some more of their mates along.

So begins an arms race that seems to escalate with each passing second. Before you know it, your idle aerial jaunt has become a desperate battle for survival against increasingly overwhelming forces. Indeed, the midway point of the first level (where the enemies begin to adopt kamikaze tactics) is likely to mark the final resting place of your first few games.

And yet even after a succession of frustrating deaths, you'll continue to play on, edging a little further each time; past the heavyweight bombers, the massed attacks and onto the multi-gunned end-of-level guardian. After a couple more tries (and judicious use of bombs – see our PG Tips below) you'll scoot past this and on to the second phase when the enemy navy get involved… and the difficultly level really ramps up.

Why will you keep playing? Well, there's always the Dunkirk spirit to drive you on, the refusal to be beaten regardless of the odds, of course. But there's more to it than that.

You see comrades, Siberian Strike is a wonderfully well-crafted experience. From the slick visual presentation to the collectable honours that contribute towards a ranking in the level debriefing, the attention to detail is rarely less than pleasing.

The balance of power-ups is also wonderfully judged, with boosts for firepower, screen-clearing bombs and extra lives all welcome; the temporary addition of wing-men is perhaps our favourite. Even the fact that your plane can often seem just a little too large and unwieldy for the job at hand feels like more of a design consideration than a flaw.

Indeed, the only real problem we have with Siberian Strike is that once you do raise your game to meet the challenge, the action all ends too soon. After a couple of levels of aerial and naval conflict and two end-of-level guardians, all that remains is an evasive journey through a field of icebergs. Unsurprisingly, this journey is more marathon than sprint and will consume the majority of your remaining lives faster than you can say, "Err, but captain, why don't we just fly higher?".

Once you do clear it, you can't help but feel slightly cheated when your only reward is a brief thanks and a missive to stand prepared for the next mission.

Obviously, this frustration is heightened by the quality of the game that comes before it and there's still a good hour or two of play here, but with a few more levels this would have been a bona fide classic rather than simply an enjoyable blast.