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A strange, one-sided construction, the planet Moebius, has appeared on the far side of Saturn. Unbeknown to the Earth authorities, this is in fact the home of Dr Braxis and his evil henchmen. It is from this sinister satellite that the evil doctor plans to launch an attack and finally defeat his enemies, the Gobots.

In an attempt to trap the Gobots, Dr Braxis has ordered his robotic henchman to capture their human companions, Nick, AJ and Matt. Caught off-guard, the humans suddenly find themselves transported to Moebius accompanied only by Turbo, one of their Gobot friends.

Before becoming immobilised by Braxis' new anti-move ray, Turbo managed to plant a tiny transmitting beacon which alerted the remaining Gobots to their plight. Having received the signal, Leader-1 and his small sidekick, Scooter, immediately travelled to Moebius to free their comrades.

On arrival, Scooter underwent a strange transformation and began to produce clones. To defeat Dr Braxis, Leader-1 must destroy all the bases on Moebius and, short of ammunition, he decides to use the Scooter clones as bombs. Taking the role of Leader-1, you fly around the planet, picking up these clones and bombing the bases.

Alerted to the presence of the leader gobot, Dr Braxis orders his minions Gog, Cop-tur and Crusher into battle. These are blasted into oblivion by your Gobot's laser, or are destroyed by a well-aimed rock - collecting by landing and pulling down on the joystick.

Successfully clearing a level allows access to the next, where Braxis' forces attack with renewed vigour.

Before embarking on your mission you have the opportunity to alter features such as the gravity and speed - effectively altering the difficulty level.

The package includes an electronic book which recounts the story prior to Leader-1's landing, and as a special 'limited edition' offer, the first games released will also include an audio tape containing a ten-minute soundtrack.

An 'electronic' book and audio tape are the sort of gimmicks which you'd expect to be included in a Gobots licensed game - after all, the original series was aimed at young children. What you don't expect to find is an unattractive and unplayable Sheep In Space clone.

How is an average eight year old Gobots fan going to battle with this game's huge inertial forces and speedily moving aliens? The presentation is commendable, but the game is a complete load of rubbish - it doesn't even have anything to do with the telly series!

Considering the age group that Gobots is aimed at, the game is really hard to play - even when you've altered all the difficulty settings to make it easier. It's also a little repetitive, as there's no visual variation from level to level.

The graphics are pretty and the electronic book is smart, but neither this nor the audio cassette makes up for the dire gameplay.

Challenge Of The Gobts contains many options and numerous ways of altering the game design. The major missing component however, is a game which contains any interesting or addictive elements - and the playability is spoiled by a remarkably unfriendly control method.

If the game was as good as the packaging and presentation then Ariolasoft would have a hot game on their hands... but it's not, and they don't!

Presentation 93%
Plenty of options, including the ability to alter the game settings.

Graphics 68%
Nice to look at, but severely lacking in variation.

Sound 50%
Reasonable music let down by ineffective spot effects.

Hookability 36%
Difficult to control and fairly unrewarding to play.

Lastability 38%
The similarity between levels soon quashes any desire to continue.

Overall 44%
Beautifully presented, but ultimately unplayable and unsuitable for its intended market.