Return Fire
by Kraig Kujawa

	Return Fire is perhaps the best two-player game to come out for any video game system in a long time. Rarely does a game hit the shelves that successfully balances the elements of action and strategy to produce such a entertaining title.
	The goal in Return Fire is simple-- capture the enemy flag before he captures yours. Each player's flag is hidden randomly within one of the many "flag containers" scattered inside each other's base. To find this coveted flag and bring it back to base, a healthy mix of tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters and jeeps must be used to infiltrate your opponents heavily defended bases.
	 Each vehicle has its own strengths and weaknesses. Armored rocket launchers pack a tremendous whallop and can plant very destructive mines. Unfortunately, turtles have been clocked at faster speeds. If you need speed, helicopters are the way to go. They have good weapons, but are very hard to control, and must return back to the launchpad to refuel and rearm. All of the vehicles at your disposal have a limited amount of ammo and fuel. Thankfully, all of the vehicles except for the helicopter can replenish their needs during battle by driving up to any fuel and ammo dumps scattered around each opponents base.
	In addition to mastering each vehicle, many types of strategies can be employed to delay your opponent from finding your flag. Techniques such as destroying vital bridges that lead to your base or the dirty trick of moving your own flag into the middle of large lake are some of the strategies that can make the game a fun and tedious one. If your purely a man of action, you can always just dive in with your guns blazing and bet on luck that you will find his flag before he finds yours. 
	Unfortunately, Return Fire's one-player mode is not nearly as fun as its two-player mode. Instead of competing against the computer to find each others flag, you are the only one taking part in the flag search. The computer simply sits back and does nothing but let his fixed cannons do all of the work. The only way you can lose is if you lose all of your vehicles which isn't going to happen very often. Although this one-player mode may be challenging for inexperienced players, seasoned veterans will probably find it pretty boring very quickly.
	Return Fire has above average graphics, and the sounds aren't bad either. The music, however, steals the show. Return Fire spools many popular, classic CD soundtracks during battle that really help set the mood. For instance, "The Ride of the Valkyries" from Apocalypse Now is played when the helicopter is in flight, while the playful "The Flight of the Bumblebee" is played while the small, fast jeep is on the battlefield. This is truly one of the most effective uses of music I have had the pleasure of hearing in a game. 
	Return Fire does have its shortcomings, unfortunately. Although the game is very good, it had the potential to be even better. For instance, there are numerous different structures within each base such as bunkers, tents, and guard towers. Unfortunately, none of them serve any purpose beyond cannon-fodder. Watching these buildings crumble and explode is all very nice, but surely some element of the game could be added or improved by utilizing all of these. Perhaps the worst complaint about this title is that no printed instructions were included with Return Fire. All of the instructions are "on-line" and accessible from the main menu. Unfortunately, these on-line instructions are very vague and incomplete. There are many important commands that were simply left out of the manual that by no means should have been. The only way I found out about them is by reading some messages the programmers left on the Internet. 
	Although this game is tainted slightly by the lack of a good manual, I must recommend it as a very entertaining two-player game. If you don't have a second person isnt to play it with on a regular basis, the one-player mode probably isn't in-depth enough to keep the game entertaining for any great length of time. 
	
UNDOCUMENTED COMMANDS
	 A+B - Changes zoom factor in scaling
	 A+B+C - Auto-destruct your vehicle
OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES
	 You can pick up your own flag with your jeep and move it around. If you enter your home base with your own flag, it will randomly be placed in one of the flag-containers in your base. 
