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They say that diamonds are forever. I can't seen this Diamond lasting very long, as far as staying on your computer is concerned that is. It's not that it's particularly bad, it's just that the programmers have put so much effort into game content that they seem to have completely forgotten the most important thing about any computer game. It should be fun.

Diamond puts you in control of Malik and his band of Wardens as they patrol the Luma space station. Apparently, they have to make sure that some prison ships stay shut, as some prisoners have a nasty habit of being freed. By whom? By the Zia of course. Who are the Zia? Stop asking me questions whilst I'm trying to review and I might just be persuaded to tell you. The Wardens are from the planet Zen, so they are called the Zen. There has been a huge war, and a lot of Zians have been arrested and slung on to 5 prison ships, and the Zia have come to try and free them. They do so by blasting big holes into the surface of the ship, and you have to seal these holes while stopping prisoners from escaping and flying off into space.

You have at your command 5 little robotic balls that go by the strange name of Supertronics. Each of these is independent and can be used as a team or individually. When used as a team, they help each other to seal holes, as well as getting each other out of tight spots such as dead ends. Each has 4 modes in which they can work.

They are:

1 Hibar Mode. Involves the closing of outside plates, thereby creating a shield to protect against enemy bullets or kamikaze prisoners. (Grrr! - KB).

2 Solar Mode. Opens a few of the plates to reveal solar panels, used to replenish energy. Handy when the Supertronic isn't in use.

3 Killar Mode. (Yes, that is how you spell it). This is the mode in which you do all the destruction. Armed to the teeth with bullets and, er some more bullets, you can release a Dan-Dan) Inertia Field Module which makes you invulnerable for a short while.

4 Rovar Mode. This is the one that does all the work. In this mode you can land on the prison ships, seal holes and capture prisoners, as well as being able to squeeze off a shot or two.

The game is displayed in semi-3-D-ness, with the current activated Supertronic central on screen and the ships displayed in glorious 8-way-o-scroll. The entire game is monochrome and, unfortunately, the graphics aren't the best I've seen. They tend to be a little unclear in places and it's quite hard to differentiate between some objects. Sound is confined to blips and blops, no tunes sad to say. It's also very difficult to get your pod to go the way you want it to.

After Yeti, it is more than a let-down from Destiny.

Label: Destiny Author: J. Bigelow and P.R. Casanova Price: £7.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Tony Dillon

Unplayable multi-scroller with low amount of attraction.