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After an anxious wait of two months I have managed to fulfil a wish of mine - to own a BBC Micro. The following review has been reviewed with the help of my BBC and should be noted as my first... of many!

Upon loading this game, you are greeted by a really catchy tune followed by the options to change the keys and choose between a colour or mono option. These are options which Sam Inglis has offered before in the all action Shark!

Minimal instructions accompanied my version, but covered enough ground to at least give me some insight into what I was to expect from Blast. Basically, the storyline goes as follows: You must try to succeed in destroying the alien command centres in each cavern, eight in all. Sounds easy, but your task is made rather more complicated by the missing filing alien defences, objects which move erratically around the screen once released from their lairs and, last of all, the cavern walls.

Pressing SPACE and making sure my fingers were poised over the correct keys, I began the awesome task of completing my objective. I was rather disappointed to say the least! I was presented with a screen, with my small space ship (triangular shaped) slowly being pulled down to earth by a strong gravity force. Also, a dome-shaped objects was also firing at me. Movement is made by thrusting in the direction of the tip of the spaceship. Inevitable comparisons with Superior's Thrust will be made at this point, and in various corners of the screen, like your command centres, which have to be shot repeatedly before exploding.

On the first level I found that two of these command centres were surrounded by red blobs, which can actually be shot to remove them, but usually this results in the previously "hard to avoid" objects escaping from their lairs!

My main dislike about this game, is that it is very difficult to obtain maximum control over your ship and, nine times out of ten, I kept smashing into the walls before I had the chance to get anywhere! Also, to make matters worse, once you have completed one level and move onto the next and so on, once you have lost all of your previous lives you are placed back at the start, to do all the levels again.

Graphics-wise this game is not particularly astounding, nor for that matter is the sound, during gameplay. Overall, I would sum up this new release from Sam Inglis as being a game for people with a hell of a lot of time and patience.

Verdict : Quite addictive, but too difficult!

Brett Colley