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A hundred years hence, the Invasion of a neighbouring planet by a power-hungry alien race has gone wrong. Now you, a mercenary, are being paid to help the beaten and defenceless aliens evacuate.

The main part of the game takes place on a single screen. Aliens appear at the edges and gradually make their way towards the safety of the two escape craft in the middle. The simply-animated mercenary moves freely around the screen, shooting various enemies with a laser gun. Space snakes travel diagonally around the play area, 'bouncing' off the sides of the screen. They split in two when their tails are shot. Yet more danger is created by exploding pods, flying saucers and the two laser bases at the bottom and right-hand side of the screen. When a given number of aliens have been rescued, a bonus can be earned by successfully negotiating a vertically-scrolling asteroid field.

The simplistic graphics are reminiscent of much earlier games, but don't be put off by the primitive presentation; underneath lies a playable little shoot-'em-up with some really frantic action. My only reservation is that its appeal could eventually wane due to the repetitive nature of gameplay. PHIL ... 64%

THE ESSENTIALS Joysticks: Cursor. Kempston, Sinclair Sound: just simple bleeping effects

'To be honest I just don't understand what Phil sees in this game. It can't be the graphics; they look like they've been dragged from some deep and dark corner of an ancient Spectrum sprite store I'd hoped closed long ago. Sound is admittedly far superior on 128K machines, but only because they can turn off the grating variety of bleep and bloop effects. I tried hard to glean any sort of enjoyment from 2088, but alas I fear that anyone who buys this game will have a turkey on their hands, and just in time for Christmas too.'