Low Innovation, High Style

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This game has thrown most of the Acorn User office into raptures. People take one look and say "It's about time!"

There's nothing particularly new or innovative about it - it's simply a classic of its genre, an arcade shoot-'em-up in the grand style.

As usual, the plot is largely dispensable. All you really need to know is there are several worlds to fly across, each with fortifications to destroy, heavily defended by cunning enemy spacecraft.

The strength of the game is that it's colourful and fast. There's no time for strategy; it's unmitigated mayhem from start to finish.

There is a choice of three worlds to start from, the main difference between them being different colours and the fact that on Ice World your attack is unopposed for a while. I always start there.

When you zap a ground feature it blows a hole right through the surface of the planet, through which you can see slowly moving stars. The landscape is detailed and colourful. The explosions are dramatic. And I can't tell you what happens when you make it through to the end of a run because I've never survived that long.

The game has a couple of nice touches. The sound effects and music can be switched on and off separately, and there is a black-and-white option which does something clever with clock timings and gives marginally smoother scrolling, though personally I'd rather stick with the colour.

But there are also some raw edges. The information screens at the beginning of a run are a little tacky and difficult to read, and the row of crosses which carves up the screen when you get a bonus is similarly untidy. But the graphics during the game are faultless.

If you think I'm in love with Firetrack, you're right. I haven't seen a better zap game for the BBC Micro.

Steve Mansfield