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Datastorm is basically a 16-bit version of Dropzone, US Gold's classic Defender/Stargate variant, with some brilliant enhancements (incidentally, Dropzone is my all-time favourite blaster). So although VDT score zero points for originality, what they have produced, in my opinion, is the best shoot-'em-up yet seen out of a coin-op cabinet.

Either one or two players (there are options to let two players partake simultaneously, or alternately) patrol a two-way horizontally scrolling wrap-around planet and protect eight pods from a wide variety of weird and very violent aliens.

One particular breed of alien, the landers, attempt to pick up the pods and whisk them away to the top of the screen, whereupon they go berserk and home in on your craft at very high speed, firing very accurate laser bolts as they go.

To help you keep a track on things, there's a radar scanner at the bottom of the screen.

The player's ship is armed with lasers, five smart bombs and a limited cloaking device which makes it invincible (a bar at the bottom of the screen shows how much shield is left). Extra shields are awarded after each level, and an extra life and smart bomb are given for every 10,000 points scored.

Extra weapons are available by picking up orbs which occasionally appear. These are: auto-fire, wide lasers, missiles (home in on pod-carrying landers) and shields.

Giant motherships also appear on preset levels. There are three types - a big red saucer, a huge space squid and a massive skull - and all are able to absorb a large number of shots before they explode.

As you progress through the levels, larger numbers of aliens appear, and they get increasingly vicious and fire more accurate bullets - your reflexes are tested to their absolute limits.

The graphics are very fast and smooth, with small and detailed alien sprites and loads of stuff going on.

The whole game is beautifully presented, with auto-save high-score table, brilliant on-screen instructions, level/speed select and four different player options.

Datastorm's lasting appeal is immense - it's the sort of game that never ages, and will get loaded up years from now for a good old nostalgic blast. The levels are never the same, and you're not constrained by having to follow patterns like you do in most other horizontally scrolling blasters - it's just you in the thick of it. You might know how to deal with the aliens, but you don't know just where they're going to pop up next.

There may be shoot-'em-ups that look and sound more impressive, but when it comes to sheer adrenalin-pumping super-fast action gameplay. Datastorm blows everything out of the water.

A superlative shoot-'em-up which knocks Forgotten Worlds off the top slot as the best Amiga blaster. Unmissable.