Mega blast mania

If you still think that games for the Archimedes are a bit second rate, you're out of date because now there's Nevryon. In essence, the game is very simple. You control a spacecraft with the intention of rescuing the planet Nevryon from alien hordes.

In this horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up you, the pilot, can fly your ship to all parts of the screen - although you can't bring it to a stand still.

As you fly on your first mission, above and within the surface of the planet, it seems as if the whole armoury of the universe has been flung at you. Snakes, bullets, fizzers and flames are all bent on the destruction of your V5 fighter. Pitted against that little lot you do your level best with a basic cannon.

However, as you might expect, as you struggle on you can collect tokens which give you an opportunity to beef up your armoury. There are additional primary weapons which fire very frequently and cover a much wider area.

Getting to the mega blasting bit, you can acquire secondary weapons. These include smart bombs, mines, force fields and flamers and are operated by a separate range of keys. Only one type can be used at a time.

Hovering defence pods come in handy, too. These are indestructable and make your task a great deal easier since most of the alien attacks will now cause you no damage.

Inevitably, damage there will be, eventually resulting in the loss of one of your craft - you have only four to complete all the missions.

Having forced your way through the opposition, you come face to face with a kind of guardian at the end of a tunnel. This beast is fantastically well defended and great skill is required to get your V5, which can now hover, close enough to beat this fearsome adversary.

This brings you on to mission two, in which you are still flying through tunnels and destroying the defences. The graphics are quite different here and add more atmosphere to the game. Level two ends with another strongly defend ed tunnel and end guardian. Beating this one will give you a password to start on mission three.

The third task is quite different, involving a meteor storm. Not all the meteors are mere rocks though. You will soon be surrounded by baleful bats and a real fight for survival begins. Oh, for another half dozen smart bombs!

Level three was as far as I got to date, but there are five more tasks to look forward to, including fights within a huge battle cruiser and with a giant alien monster.

The game offers a vast array of options. Firstly, there are three skill levels: Timid gives you craft loads of power but you score points rather slowly, while Ace allows you to accumulate a good score rapidly - you need to, since your craft quickly disintegrates.

The game keys are completely user definable, or you can use a mouse or two types of joystick if you wish.

At the end of a game you can opt to start again from the beginning or keep the secondary weapons you have collected. This is certainly a help when you're aiming to top the high score table - which can be saved on disc or kept for just one session.

Nevryon features the best graphics and sound I have ever come across. All of the superb sprites are packed with amazing detail and the animation and scrolling are completely flicker-free.

Six different full stereo pieces of music add greatly to the atmosphere, and you can set their level to suit you. The sound effects, too, are of the highest quality.

In style, this game is rather like some BBC Micro Golden Oldies such as Rocket Raid, but the graphics and sound transport it into an entirely different dimension.

It is very hard to stop playing Nevryon and that's normally the hallmark of a classic. If you are into somewhat thoughtful shoot-'em-ups dash out and buy it. You won't be disappointed.

Rog Frost