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Saving the earth is one of my favourite spare time hobbies, particularly when there's a smooth-scrolling solar system in which to do it.

The Megardians are trying to exact a fearsome revenge on Earth for a centuries' old defeat. They have set an attack fleet of fighters and mega-mines upon the planet to destroy it. The mines home-in slowly but surely and one impact will destroy us. Meanwhile, fighters try to distract your lone craft from its mission to blow up the mines.

Each of the 34 levels or chases has 16 mega-mines and numerous fighters of different capabilities. Your craft is equipped with a laser cannon and shields to protect itself.

You are trapped in a force field round the planet and collisions with this or with any of the planets, stars and moons inside it, will deplete your ship's 1,000 energy units. Firing your laser or putting up your shields at one of the yellow depots will also reduce your power.

The mines close in from outside the force field and are small and difficult to shoot. However, independent fire and movement mean that you can blast away in different directions to that of your ship. Control is hard since you continue in your direction of thrust but you get used to it.

The enemy ships come in many different forms depending on the chase you are on. They either try to ram you or blast you down and some have the ability to pass through planets or travel at twice the normal speed.

The opening sequence and the game are in brilliant detail and it's a joy to move about the scrolling space landscape. But the spaceships are a little crude.

Concentration is essential and the action gets hectic on the higher chases for anyone.

Hmm, not quite sure about this one. The opening screen is great. It's a pity the actual game isn't. There's a tune but it's short, monotonous and annoying after a while. Sound as you play includes the usual zaps and explosions.

The game is a scrolling shoot-the-aliens in a very different guise but it loses its initial appeal rapidly. The explosions are pretty ordinary and the graphics are a bit primitive.

Firstly, some advice: don't try to read the instruction manual - it's long-winded and repetitive. Instead, just turbo-load and treat yourself to some stunning interplanetary graphics.

However, the control of the saucer is not outstanding, as the craft never stops moving, necessitating a lot of joystick toggling. There is a sufficient number of different levels to keep the avid gamer happy, but there are no fundamental changes to gameplay at all.

That this was apparently game-of-the-month in several American magazines is hard to believe.