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Cor! I used to love playing Crossfire when I were a nipper. I had me tacky plastic gun, me little metal balls, and me magnetic puck thingy, Bang, bang, smack the puck off the side of the board, into the other player's goal - eee, t'were grand. And when that got boring, we used to fire the balls at each other (don't try this at home, kids!).

Playing against the computer or a friend, your aim is to score three goals before your opponent does. That's avoiding such hazards as pinball bumpers, speed up arrows, tunnels and ball splitters (ouch!), of course. Pity you can't fire the balls at other people afterwards, though. [Shuddup, Randy - Ed]

When you see this for the very first time you think "ah, Speedball!". Actually, it's nothing like it. It's practically the same as that old Crossfire boardgame, in fact. And, while it's enjoyable for a while, play (just bouncing balls off a puck, into a goal) begins to get samey after a bit.

It's nicely presented - with a big list of options - and sports some pretty graphics and clever sound effects; the title tune is very reminiscent of demo music, though! Fun for a while, but gets boring as a single-player game.

Games like this are made for two people! Don't get me wrong - Ballistix is still great fun as a one-player game, but it does get repetitive after some time. Graphics are nice and detailed, and the balls move around very smoothly; there are some great sound effects and a touch of atmospheric speech as well, but the title track is a bit weedy. Still a fab game, though, which I definitely recommend to Crossfire fans.

A C64 version is planned, though is still under development and won't be released for a few months. Prices will be £9.99 and £12.99.

Presentation 82%
Lots of useful options, two-player game, tidy screen display and small but useful game manual.

Graphics 84%
Atmospheric backgrounds and well-defined sprites which move around clearly.

Sound 65%
Great effects and speech but slightly iffy title track.

Hookability 81%
Easy to learn, and quick to get into.

Lastability 67%
Not much long-term fun for one person alone.

Overall 77%
A fun, accurate computer version of the old but popular board game, best suited to two players.