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Ever seen Fantastic Voyage? You know, it's that totally believable film which has Raquel Welch and a whole load of other plastic scientists battling wth foam-filled corpuscles and polystyrene tissue walls inside a bald man's body. Great, eh?

Well, now you can do that very self-same thing yourself. There's a crisis in the lab. Not content with having a very silly name, Professor Szymanski has implanted a piece of raw DNA in his brain. Trouble is, a completely unexpected lab explosion has sent this very delicate procedure totally askew; the professor's in a coma, the DNA's growing and unless you manage to locate it, he'll probably die. Good riddance if you ask me.

The professor's cells are even less likely than the Queen of England to send out a welcoming committee to a bloke in a Microsubmersible (that's you). Antibodies and mutant cells (from the DNA) swarm towards you, so you'd better shoot them first. Get whole formations and they'll leave a few extra weapon plasma spheres behind.

To make matters worse, you've actually got to find all the professor's intercellular junctions to help you through the body - and for some of them you'll have to find a key.

If you manage to find and collect all eight pieces of the valuable Growth inhibitor, all you've got to do is face the mega brain implant itself. Oooh!

Ever since I first saw the film I've really fancied myself as a bit of a Fantastic Voyager, so this is just the game for me. I've got to admit, the shoot-'em-up element isn't really up to the standard of the likes of, say Armalyte or Denaris (the action isn't anywhere near as renetic for a start) but it is quite a lot of fun to play and that's what's supposed to count, innit?

Anyway, the collect-'em-up aspect gives it just that bit of extra depth, and the fact that you actually have to *find* your way round the body makes it all the more interesting. Not the greatest, most graphically advanced shoot-'em-up ever, but quite a hot little number nevertheless.

Oo 'eck - another of them shoot-'em-up thingies. Well, not quite - this has mapping and collect-'em-up elements thrown in as well. Great!

Well, it would be if the graphics were a bit more detailed and the action had just that extra bit of speed. Don't get me wrong - it's pretty good as it is (the two-way scrolling's a really unusual idea and there are plenty of levels to complete) but it could be a tiny bit better.

If you're a real hardened blaster, definitely give this a look, but make sure you *look* before you leap. Corny, eh?

Hmmmm... I've been playing Denaris a lot recently, and DNA Warrior does come as a bit of disappointment after that. The two-way scrolling definitely makes a change and so does the idea that you've got to find your way *around* the shoot-'em-up.

It's just that the action doesn't move quite as fast as I'd expect and all that exploration turns out to get extremely annoying after a while. Thing is, you've got to find your way through the body by a process of trial and error, just trying to leave the screen where you think there might be a junction.

In other words, you *have* to keep on dying. I wouldn't say that spoils the gameplay completely but it does make the difference between something really great.

Presentation 60%
Mini poster instruction sheet, plus good front end but, apart from that, nothing special.

Graphics 72%
Various suitably organic-looking backgrounds and sprites, but they could have been a bit more detailed.

Sound 75%
Funky in-game and title tune plus the odd blippy spot effect.

Hookability 71%
Multi-directional scrolling and mapping takes a bit of getting used to at first.

Lastability 74%
There's plenty to explore, collect and map once you've got the hang of it.

Overall 74%
An unusual combo of shoot and explore elements which just falls short of being great.