Everywhere you look there are Green Hill Zone-styled palm trees to be flattened under your tank treads, and glossy tin-toy cruisers to be torn up with missiles. More than any other RTS, Red Alert's chunky units and vivid designs conjure memories of playing with Matchbox cars on the carpet, and a quick glance at one of the new game's maps reveals familiar landscapes filled with colour and sprightly detail. This remains a world of cleverly crafted silliness, then, where Einstein has laid a smackdown on Hitler before being clotheslined by the Russians himself, and the battlefields are flush with combat-hardened dolphins and armoured bears. If you're worried that the success of Company of Heroes may have tempted Red Alert to take itself a bit more seriously this time around, the sight of Russian troops marching into battle decked out in military-themed club-wear confirms that the series has lost none of its sense of humour.
If it does nothing else, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 will at least provide conclusive proof that, were it not for the Second World War, the Soviet Union would have developed the technology to make their own hotpants by the 1950s.
