Do you live in fear of a nuclear holocaust? Does it terrify you that some idiot could just push a button and turn half the world into a radioactive wasteland? Then you'd best steer clear of Shadow President, because the game is set during a time when the prospect of atomic war was a very real one. On the other hand if, like me, you're too young to remember the Cold War or the Cuban Missile Crisis, then Shadow President will have you giggling like an imbecile as your finger hovers above the virtual big red button the game presents you with. What was that, Holland? You don't approve of foreign policy? I hope you like your new glow-in-the-dark windmills..

Of course, Shadow President isn't only about nuking other countries. The game, which casts you as the President of the United States, does in fact let you control pretty much every aspect of your country's military and economic policy. Using the handy world map interface, you can grant foreign aid to countries, send troops to other lands, increase educational spending and so forth. It might seem a bit bewildering at first, but you don't have to micromanage everything about the country - you can do as much or as little as you want. You also have a number of advisers on hand who are supposedly there to offer useful advice, though in actual fact the 'advice' they give you tends to be fairly random and largely useless. Oh, and they tend to resign if you do something they disagree with, like nuke a country. Some people have no stomach for warfare.

But nuking another country isn't a good idea. You can unleash some or all of your missiles against any power on the globe, but it usually results in game over.  Not from a counterstrike, though - while the USA may burn, you're safely ensconced in a bunker somewhere.  No, you'll end up losing the game because you'll end up being assassinated by a foreign power or impeached by the surviving citizens. But all is not lost if you want to be a world conquering despot. You can still invade countries, most of which will bend to the will of might US of A. On my last play I managed to conquer Mexico, and Australia. Unfortunately I got assassinated while I was attacking Belgium, so my aspirations of world domination went unfulfilled. In fact, world domination is pretty much right out - because sooner or later, your people will have you chucked out of office - even if you turn off the 'election' option, you can still be removed by force.

So, if world domination isn't an option, what else does Shadow President have to offer? Er, not much really. The problem with Shadow President is that it falls between two stools. It's not a war-game, given that the game penalizes you for trying to take over the world. And the other part of the game, the simulation part is a letdown too. It's incredibly dry and uninteresting, and limited with it. Don't get me wrong - I like world building games and so forth as much as the next gamer - I had a blast with Sim City. But Shadow President does nothing other than spew figures at you. It's not that the graphics aren't great - this was made ten years ago, after all - but that you never get any real sense of accomplishment. There's no feedback, no 'President commits aid to war torn Kreplakistan' - just more figures. So the only fun to be had with Shadow President is nuking other countries - and since you really can't progress with your war-mongering efforts, the appeal of that wears thin pretty quickly. Which is a shame as a game like this has a lot of potential, that a remake could perhaps sort out, but as is, it's only worth the briefest of plays.