Imagine being given the freedom to fight for the forces of democracy against tyranny or the forces of tyranny against democracy. Imagine being given one of the most sophisticated battle helicopters known to military science to achieve this (ig)noble aim. Imagine no longer, Coala is here. Coala is a helicopter flight sim with a difference. Traditional flight sims rely on all manner of technical frippery and detail to maintain their authenticity and sense of realism. Coala ignores all that.

Instead, Coala relies on the credibility and realism of the battlefield. Taking place within the confines of a three dimensional, finite, wraparound world, each combat mission and scenario witnesses the forces of the East pitched against the forces of the West. Dispensing with tradition, in Coala you are totally neutral and can choose which side to fight for. The choice is even open to fight against both sides. Although not recommended for obvious reasons, taking everyone on is the ultimate test of the player's combat ability.

As is to be expected of a pseudo flight sim, Coala takes place within a three dimensional world. The player starts the game at a Western base within the cockpit of a battle copter; there are four different types to be flown in all. Controls are simple and easily picked up. All that needs to be done to take to the air is to give the engine enough collective to overcome gravity. The chopper will take off and the player can start moving about. The easiest method of controlling the chopper requires use of the mouse. Mouse control quickly becomes intuitive and offers the unrestrictive freedom of analogue responsiveness.

Even more emancipating is the 'virtual' cockpit. By pressing the right mouse button and holding it down, an unrestricted three dimensional view can be taken. That is, the chopper continues on its path and the view simulates the pilot looking around him. This is particularly useful when lining up targets. Rather than having to keep the whole chopper in line, the pilot only really needs to get close to the target. From there, it's just a matter of moving the cross hairs of the currently selected weapon system to line up with the unfortunate victim's vehicle.

Tricky to use at first, it soon becomes a cake walk. At times, depending on the enemy you're taking out, it almost feels like an unfair advantage. But not quite. For there is no such thing as an unfair advantage in war. And that's what Coala is - total war.

Each of the missions and scenarios has a life of its own. If the player chooses to take no part, the battle will still be decided by the computer participants fighting each other. Part of the strength and believability of Coala belongs to the internal dynamics of the battlefield and the artificial intelligence of the battlefield's protagonists.

If desired, this artificial intelligence can be observed by choosing to view any of the planes, choppers, tanks, trucks, etc. in action. It's just a simple manner of selecting the requisite view from the keyboard and cycling through all of the participants until you reach the one you want to follow. It's possible, therefore, to fly with an enemy plane that's just about to take you out with a heat-seeking missile.

The beauty of the views is the ability to look all around the chosen vehicle in a full 360 degree, three dimensional pan. This flexibility can also give the discerning player an insight into the tactics adopted by adversaries, so that more effective counter measures can be taken when going head-to-head.

Of course, there's a pay-off for all of this artificial intelligence and 3D power - that of processor speed. After all, what's on offer here is more than previously offered by traditional sims. Other than Dawn Patrol and Overlord, no other sim has provided a 'virtual' cockpit. That Coala's is the best and easiest to use is beyond doubt.

But there's a trade-off to be made between graphical detail, processor speed and frame rate. Power-challenged Amigas like the 500 and 600 need a 68020 with 2Mb minimum to run Coala. A1200 owners will find that some Fast memory is desirable to avoid a jerky effect. Luckily, the programmers have included an option screen whereby features such as ground and object detail can be set high to low on a scale of 1 to 10. Other processor-hungry cosmetics, such as horizon detail and viewing distance, are also customisable - so a standard vanilla A1200 runs Coala satisfactorily, though not brilliantly.

If you have the requisite hardware the question needing to be asked is: "Is Coala worth buying"? The answer has to be yes, but with some reservations. The game, despite some excellent features, looks old-fashioned - no texture maps and a limited palette. The terrain is flat - no mountains or hills to hide behind.

The mission structure is a series of self-contained one-offs, giving the feeling that there is no cohesive sense of progress and that there's no 'bigger' picture within the game. This gives the whole thing the feeling of a glorified, although thoroughly enjoyable, shoot-'em-up. Despite that, I would still buy Coala. You can create your own fully customisable "What if?" missions. It makes intelligent use of the Amiga hardware and it enables you to pit your wits against the artificial intelligence routines of the programmers.

Not yet good enough to be considered a classic, it hints at the sort of 'Next Generation' games a properly powered Amiga is capable of and, as such, deserves to be bought in numbers. Hopefully, the commercial success that the game deserves will encourage the programmers to inject more cohesion and believability into the package for Coala 2.