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Holy smoke! Great Krypton! Is it a bird? Is it a superhero? No! it's the Cosmic Shock Absorber!

Yep folks, it's superhero time and as all heroes have already been licensed, here's a superhero we haven't yet heard about. You're the Cosmic Shock Absorber, a second rate superduper hero. In fact, so second rate that your megascoring space craft is only one step above a C5. Mind you, 'cos you're second rate, you've forgotten the instructions and you've no idea what to do when it all goes wrong.

The Universe is in dire peril (again), and as the resident superhero, you have to make a journey to the interstellar lake of protozoic slime to save it. This is where the game really starts. You sit in the cockpit and blast the bad guys until a circuit board goes phut! Then, before you can blast any more, you have to fix it. Sounds a dead cinch, dunnit? You are so right!

Bung the joystick on autofire and you're free to make a cup of tea, it's that easy. You see, you can't lose. The baddies are such good sports that they even die when they're not in your sights. Mind you, when a malfunction occurs (about once every eight seconds), you enter stage two.

Here you're given a picture of the manky circuit board and you've got five measly seconds to memorise the position, shape and colour of every component. After your five seconds are up, two components go snap, crackle and pop and you've got fifty seconds to put 'em light. Once you've got it right (if you get it right) you carry on with the game.

The graphics are well animated and based on vectors, though tending more towards Starglider than Elite. And with games like Star Raiders II for a couple of quid more, I think it's slightly overpriced. I reckon it's like the ship in the game - it attempts more than it's capable of, and falls apart.