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The sky is blue, the sea is calm, and you're floating one metre above the chequered, grassy surface of a tropical island. "Idyllic" isn't the word for it. "Dangerous" is.

Apart from yourself and some pretty strange species of plant, Archipelagos is a dead world, the original inhabitants having been eliminated by invading aliens many eons ago. The aliens have long since departed, but their weapons system is still active, and it's up to you to deactivate it.

Somewhere amongst the islands in each of the game's 9,999 archipelagos there are Obelisks holding the power which destroyed the Ancients. To eliminate the Obelisk, you first have to destroy its power sources - the boulders which are scattered throughout the archipelago.

Locating the rocks is a question of trekking over each scrolling 3D landscape by pointing and clicking on the square you want to move to. Once you've found a boulder, just click on its square and, providing the land it's on is directly connected to the land the Obelisk is on, it crumbles.

Although you're airborne, there are some restrictions on your movements. The major problem is that you're not allowed to move to red squares which are polluted with the blood of the Ancients and hence, deadly. Blood is shed by mobile trees which inexorably home in on you, hoping to poison the square you're on and kill you.

Fortunately, you have a limited supply of energy which can be used to disinfect squares, or create land bridges between islands, thus connecting boulders to the Obelisk.

Once all the boulders are destroyed, you have 90 seconds to get over to the Obelisk and destroy it before it destroys you. Succeed and it's on to the next archipelago, which features more islands and where there are more rocks to destroy. The higher levels feature additional hazards, such as blood eggs, which explode and pollute large areas. There are also wandering monsters which either destroy land square by square or flit around islands, waiting to bump into you so they can suck out your soul.

Now, from what I've said already you must have guessed that Archipelagos is the sort of strategy adventure that Firebird made popular with The Sentinel a few years back.

However, Archipelagos seems to lack that something that made The Sentinel the totally compulsive gaming experience it was. Some of the most advanced archipelagos are pretty vast, so even with the inclusion of a planet in the sky to indicate which direction is north doesn't always save you from losing your bearings in what can often be indistinguishable landscapes.

Still, if you're prepared to persevere, Archipelagos becomes fun in a relaxing sort of way, and the eerie David Whittaker music helps in this respect. One of the better distractions for 16-bit thinkers.

Almost exactly the same as the ST version, apart from a touch more colour, slightly better music and slightly slower gameplay.

A nicely polished game, with lovely graphics, atmospheric music and a very good instruction manual, but gameplay, which on occasion is a little tedious, lets the side down somewhat.