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Shoot-'em-ups seem to be flavour of the month. This one's of the right-to-left scrolling variety. It's composed of six progressively more difficult stages and an awful lot of aliens to convert into particle-incinerated space dust.

Your ship appears on the left of the screen but can fly most of the way across to the right. However, you'll want as much warning as possible of oncoming hazards, so most of your time will be spent on the left. As you fly sedately through the zones you'll encounter many alien buildings, floating platforms and caverns, all of which are quite detailed but composed of just one colour.

Crashing into any of the landscape is fatal. But more of a problem are the alien craft that fly on from the right of the screen. These start off with simple spheres and birds that fly straight and are easily dealt with by your forward-firing laser. Amazingly, the aliens, yourself, the laser fire and explosions are all exactly the same colour as the landscape. Wow - what a programming achievement!

As you progress through the zones, the aliens get gradually trickier and will start moving around screen more. This can cause you problems, particularly when trying to manoeuver in a tight spot.

On the whole the game is rather easy; your only problem is getting a tired fire finger. The last couple of zones get quite tough. But this doesn't lift the monotony of the task you're facing. I'm completely fed up with games that don't use the CPC's colour facilities; this one's plain ridiculous.

25,000

The game looks as though it has been downloaded from a lesser machine with little alteration: the graphics are monocolour albeit detailed: scrolling is jerky; sounds consist of bleeps and bangs. Not much fun even at £2.

All visible.

Graphics 44%
P. Detailed scenery and explosions.
N. Where's the colour?

Sonics 24%
P. Zapping noises only.

Grab Factor 47%
P. No shortage of things to shoot.
N. Rather slow action.

Staying Power 41%
P. Six long zones to get through.
N. Too easy and lacks variety.

Overall 45%
Not much imagination went into this one.