Apart from the low price of this piece of software, the first thing I noticed and liked, was that the program is recorded on both sides of the tape, with instructions and game on one side and game only on the other, for those who know the rules by heart and don't wish to waste time loading unwanted instructions. Firebird are to be congratulated for this arrangement.

The intro music is quite impressive and almost makes it a pleasure waiting for the game to load.

The game itself is disappointing, the underlying style is typical of BBC software two to three years ago and the graphics are nothing to write home about although full use has been made of the Mode 2 colour capability. The design of the various dangerous alien lifeforms are mostly rudimentary, and movement is not always smooth.

Briefly the object of the game is to collect 32 pieces of a mask, which are spread evenly around the outer edge of the screen, and take them one by one inside a forcefield in the middle. Whilst collecting the pieces there are several aliens to be avoided including a spider-like creature which can only be destroyed from behind. One or two of the aliens can actually enter your central forcefield and these must be destroyed before they enter. Most of the aliens are indestructible and therefore are to be avoided at all costs. In keeping with all games of this type, the various aliens have different movement patterns and provide varying degrees of danger to you.

You start off with five lives and if successful in completing the mask your reward is to move on to a more demanding level where you have to do the same thing over again.

This program is one of the cheaper ones on the market it is only reasonable to take this into account however, even bearing in mind the game has little to offer that hasn't been seen before.

David Glew