a controversial ad campaign portraying previous dictators next to current military leaders with the subtitle "Previous High Scores". Comparing current politicians with historic mass murderers in an attempt to sell the game was received as crass, stupid and ignorant to European history. Sales In the United States, Command & Conquer: Red Alert debuted at No. 2 on PC Data's computer game sales chart for November 1996, behind Microsoft Flight Simulator. Following a third-place finish in December, it became the United States' seventh-best-selling computer game of 1996 as a whole. According to PC Data, its domestic sales totaled 347,844 units during the period, which drew revenues of $16.5 million. In 1997, Red Alert held a position in PC Data's top 3 for the first four months of the year, peaking at No. 2 in April. It was ultimately the fourth-biggest seller of 1997's first half in the United States, after finishing at No. 4 in May and June. While the game remained in the top 10 through September, it was absent from the top 20 by October. Red Alert ended 1997 as the United States' eighth-best seller among computer titles, with sales of 363,207 units for the year. The game's lifetime sales rose to 869,623 copies in the United States by September 1999. At the time, PC Data declared it the country's 17th-best-selling computer game released since January 1993. In August 1998, Red Alert received a "Platinum" sales award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), indicating sales of at least 200,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In Germany alone, the game sold 400,000 copies in 1996. Red Alert was a commercial success, with global sales of 1.5 million copies in its debut month. Over half of these sales derived from North America. It sold close to 2 million copies by mid-February 1997. Critical reviews The PC version of the game scored 90.91% on GameRankings based on 11 reviews, while the PlayStation version scored 81.40% based on 5 reviews. A reviewer for Next Generation commented that Command & Conquer: Red Alert retains the gameplay elements of the outstanding original game while enhancing the graphics, expanding warfare to both air and sea, and rebalancing the gameplay so that players cannot succeed by simply using the same tactics which worked in the original. He concluded that "in a holiday season swamped with C&C clones, discerning gamers won't go wrong by sticking to