In the wake of the phenomenal success of Arkanoid comes another 'revamped' version of a hit from days gone by. This time it's that old classic Galaxions that's been bought out of retirement, but this time they're coming straight at you kid!

Not content to just give Galaxions the Arkanoid treatment of smarter graphics and extra gameplay, Gremlin has gone a stage further and turned the 2D blast from the past, into a first person zapper that puts you in the cockpit of an experimental Astroblitz craft. Your mission... as always, the utter destruction of a mere 99 waves of Vectons... the most feared of all intergalactic warmongers.

The major part of the screen is your cockpit window, through which can be seen the advancing ranks of the alien Vectons. Each alien is seen in filled 3D as it lines up for the kill.

The Vectrons come at you in any one of 25 different formations, and after every four waves, you will be invited to brave an asteroid field just to keep you on your toes for the next four waves.

Your Astroblitz craft is armed with two weapons: normal anti-craft missiles, and anti-asteroid missiles - a perfect cure for the common asteroid!

Each time you fire a missile at the approaching Vectons, it rushes off into the distance in the general direction you aimed. The problem is, that if you start to steer your craft, to keep the Vectons in view, your missile goes off in the opposite direction.

I'm sure that, given a lot of practice, one could use this 'feature' to one's advantage, but I found it annoying and frustrating. It would have been better to be able to manoeuvre my craft independently of the missile's trajectory.

However, when you do hit a Vecton, you are greeted by a digitised explosion which makes all the hours, you put in seem worthwhile. If, on the other hand, you let the enemy get too close to you, the screen goes ga-ga and the average musical soundtrack is replaced by a suitably blood-curdling scream - neat!

Below the cockpit window is the now obligatory bank of brightly coloured, though useless, instruments and dials, although the radar comes in handy if you mislay the odd wave of Vectrons hell-bent on your destruction.

As for playability, well the game has some serious flaws but is still fun to play. A little more game-testing may have seen Galax evolve into a great arcade blaster. Nevertheless, all credit to Gremlin for joining the brave ranks of those prepared to develop games exclusively for 16-bit machines.