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The job advertised in the Galactic Times seemed ideal: 'See the universe and make mega credits'. 'Qualified pilots only need apply,' it said. That's you isn't it? Captain Kelly, ex-space corps and qualified to fly any type of ship. With those qualifications, you couldn't fail to get the job...

The only problem is that the job is incredibly boring - all you have to do is pick up ships from their parked orbit above Earth, check out their main instrumentation and deliver them safely to their owners. You certainly need to be a qualified pilot though - some of the ships look as if they would never make the planetfall trip to the space port! Oh well, at least taking the job was better than being unemployed. Just. So you get into the routine and day after day pick up and deliver craft... a 'safe' job with no action. Well, until today.

You've been ordered to pick up a craft called the Obsidian II, a new breed of robot-protected class XIV mining vessel. A nice and easy job you thought to yourself as you inserted your security pass into the lock to disable the robot guards. Your pass is rejected so you try again, but again the pass is rejected. Perhaps there's a malfunction? Still, there's no problem - you can enter the ship through the main door. The doors clang shut behind you, breaking your train of thought and you suddenly remembered the claim of the company which built the ship: 'the security system which lets intruders in but not out'. Oops. Well, here's the action that you were hankering after... You've just entered a seven level ship and each level is crawling with vicious anti-personnel droids with one thing on their binary minds: your destruction.

The action takes place in a scrolling window, and is viewed from above. To take control of the ship you must destroy all the robots on each of the seven levels and then make your way to the main control room to power up the two gauges found there. To make matters more complicated, you also have to keep your eye on your vital supplies - oxygen, energy and ammunition. Run out of oxygen or energy and Kelly dies, ending the game. Without bullets, your gun doesn't work and robots can't be killed. Supply centres on each deck of the ship can be used to replenish stocks, but you're only allowed to visit each supply centre a set number of times. Strolling into a computer terminal allows Kelly to check his status.

To dispose of a robot guard you have to knock down its energy by shooting it several times. When its energy gets low, it scuttles off to look for a robot repair room where it can recharge. if you allow it to reach the repair room, it will emerge refreshed and twice as keen to kill you as it was before, so make sure you finish it off before it gets there!

When all the robots on a level have been eliminated the level shuts down and is unguarded - no more robots will appear there. Then it's time to move on to the next level using the on-board transporter system - just walk into a transporter and you are spirited to the next part of the ship. Maybe being unemployed wasn't so bad after all...

Captain Kelly is basically a poor man's Paradroid and I'm not impressed with it in the slightest. It's slow and monotonous to play, the graphics are simple and ineffective, and the tune played throughout the game is aurally offensive. Captain Kelly is an incredibly *bad* piece of software which should be left alone to die and rot in peace.

This is a blatant Paradroid rip-off, and a really bad one at that. The Kelly sprite trudges around the place at a really slow speed and killing off the robots is a dull and pointlessly long task. The graphics consist of very poor bas-relief and the sprites are dull and badly animated. There are very few original features in the game and there's nothing on offer to keep you coming back to it. If you like the sound of this sort of scenario then look at Paradroid first, it's several classes above this.

Captain Kelly, eh? Not a name that makes you want to grab the game and play it with enthusiasm. It sounds hopelessly dated and, believe me, it sure is. The graphics are weak and unimaginative and rarely vary through the different levels making it all extremely tedious. After seeing this game, I didn't want to play it. When I eventually did play it, I quickly became bored, and I don't want to play it again.

Presentation 45%
Simple loading screen, title screen and in-game presentation.

Graphics 34%
Lacking colour, quality and variety.

Sound 19%
Abysmal tune played throughout the game.

Hookability 39%
Tedious from the outset.

Lastability 28%
Not much to do or enthrall.

Value For Money 29%
A vastly Inferior version of Paradroid for the same price.

Overall 30%
Quite simply, a very dull shoot-'em-up.