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Strange things have been happening to the atmospheric conditions of some planets, and now the Colonisation Corps think that they have discovered the source. A mysterious shape has been spotted on the deep-space scanners, surrounded by a large number of smaller blips. Without further ado, the Corps sent out probes to investigate the traces. Unfortunately, all the messages sent back were pitifully short and no probes ever returned. The messages have two things in common, though; they all mention asteroids and a large green creature named Mukor.

Meanwhile, the Corps has sent a fleet of drone-controlled ships to the scene aboard huge space troopships. The mission: to destroy the asteroids Mukor has surrounded himself with and then go straight to the jugular for the Mukor kill.

The attack craft consist of three types of ships. Remote control allows you to switch between them at any time; the required ship is just teleported into the fray whilst the last fighter is returned to the mother ship. If two ships are in combat, they can be joined for extra efficiency. The craft can only withstand a certain amount of pressure and collisions cause their energy supplies to diminish. Lucky for you that shooting a red asteroid releases energy crystals that can be used to refuel.

Just to make things that extra bit more awkward, the system is patrolled by enemy spacecraft. When you've shot some of these, they drop bits of useful equipment which can be added to your attack crafts' weapon systems.

Clear all the sections of a galaxy, and your craft are sent in to battle with Mukor, the big slime-ball himself - he only dies once all his tubes have been blasted off (ugh!).

Not that this is necessarily the end of the fight, though. Mukor's a pretty weird being and if any of that revolting slime escapes, it may well form itself into another creature for you to destroy. Whoopee!

Speeder - flies the fastest
Fighter - has the greatest firepower
Warrior - has heaviest armour
Combined - flown by one player, turret controlled by the other

Power crystals - adds to energy reserve
Blaster - gives double fire
Shields - save energy reserve
Ripstar - mega death-dealing weapon
Extra fuel capacity - enlarges energy tank
Booster - increases thrust speed
Magnet - attracts crystals
Hit power - increases blast impact

I haven't had much experience of Blasteroids in the arcades, as Gordo always gets to the machine before me, so I hardly get a look in.

This time it's different: the Amiga version is just like the arcade game (minus sound), and the C64 captures the feel tremendously. The graphics are extremely good, with well-drawn and smoothly animated sprites moving across atmospheric backdrops: the amount of objects on screen on the Amiga is incredible - and not a flicker in sight.

Despite the lack of faith to the arcade sound FX, both versions have some pretty neat musical accompaniment (well, *I* liked it).

What we're saying is: If you're a fan of the original, check it out!

I thought that Atari's idea of rejuvenating Asteroids was pretty ridiculous when I first heard about it, but when Blasteroids finally appeared I had to concur that it was a good idea after all.

Now that the arcade game has appeared on hme machines, all we could hope for is that they've translated the game properly. Well, I think I can safely say that the Amiga's graphics are just about arcade perfect, and the C64's sprite animation fully captures the feel of the original.

The only thing that really bothers me, being an Amiga music fan, is the poor sound. The tune's OK - if a little repetitive - but the sound effects are really just tuned 'crunch' noises. Still, who cares when the game's so playable we've been having fights over it all day?

Right! I'm off to have another go...

Presentation 84%
The layout is excellent and the Amiga's intro screens and in-game hints make up for the multi-load.

Graphics 78%
The C64's sprites aren't arcade perfect but are well-animated. The Amiga version has detailed backdrops and loads of brilliantly animated whizzing objects.

Sound 80%
Highly disappointing Amiga sound effects, but the tunes on both are OK.

Hookability 90%
Everyone knows how to play this. Just shoot everything!

Lastability 82%
Gets progressively harder... and harder and harder...

Overall 83%
An extremely playable, top class arcade conversion.