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A compellingly original space fest that's probably easier to play than describe. Your starbase is under attack and evil Colonial forces are intent on your fuel cells. One by one (or three by three depending on which level you reach) they descend, accompanied by showers of Death Particles - which, needless to say, have to be avoided. What's worse, a Colonial Death Layer follows hot on their heels - if Colonial forces do indeed have heels - which rapidly cuts down your area of play.

Should an alien manage to avoid your laser fire and reach one of the fuel cells, he'll bounce back up through the Death Layer thereby transforming into a Superklone, who'll divide into two if hit by your blaster. As you might imagine, the pressure mounts up rather quickly. The thing continues until all of your blasters have been zapped or all your fuel cells lost. My average game lasted around 55 seconds. The accompanying manual tells me that should your score top the five-figure mark, a supply ship will appear to top up your quota of fuel cells. I'll take that as read as I'm unlikely to see it for myself!

Cosmic Clones is a nice idea, stylishly executed. I was particularly taken with the notion of dividing forces. The sound is suitably discordant and the graphics neat and tidy. Curiously, I had to abandon joysticks in favour of the keyboard as I found them far too sensitive. Avoiding the Death Particles calls for precise movement and the sticks had me whizzing around the lower portion of the screen like some gun-toting ice skater. Most undignified.