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Atomic Robo-Kid has just graduated from the Universal University of Space Combat and is on his first mission - to travel deep into enemy territory and destroy everything that gets in his way.

The metal matey starts with a fairly standard blaster, but if he shoots the right object it turns into one of four extra weapon icons - collect it and you either get atomic blasters, three-way atomic fire, atomic missiles or atomic lasers!

And these are all very helpful, because there's a load of baddies to blast - lots of little ones and a mini-guardian on each level, and a huge bigger-than-a-screen mega-guardian every fourth level that requires a load of hits before it explodes. But then, who says space combat is easy?

Atomic Robo-Kid is one of the best-looking shoot-'em-ups yet seen on the PC Engine. The backdrops are colourful and beautifully designed, many of the sprites are superb, and the big (and I mean big) mega-guardians are superb - I've seen nothing like them since R-Type!

The action is fast and furious - maybe a bit too easy on the lower levels - but later on (around level 14) things really start getting tough, with some tricky situations to guide Robo-Kid through. The only annoying thing is that, when you lose certain weapons on higher levels, it's incredibly difficult to carry on, but if you ignore that, Atomic Robo-Kid is an extremely slick and polished blaster that should go down a bomb with any PC Engine shoot-'em-up fan.