Any self-respecting Vic owner will probably own a copy sorry, original - of Arcadia by Imagine. This is very similar: a very fast vertical shoot up in which you control a spaceship.

The format could not be older or easier to understand. The title page insults you with phrases like 'human scum' to get you in the mood for the carnage and slaughter that follows.

I have to compare it to Arcadia as you will too when you choose between the two. Galaxia has plenty of phases, including meteors that split up in being hit and ships that remain at the bottom of the screen to give a threat from below as well as above.

The aliens storm down the screen towards you - and *it is fast*! The response is instant - the game really needs to be as fast as it is to prevent it from being too easy. Graphics however are not as good as Arcadia. Neither is sound. It simply has not got the detail of attention in either area. There's plenty of Arcadia copies left about after Imagine's collapse to beat rivals like this game.

One fault is the way that it is all too easy to blast away from one place on the screen. There is little skill involved, lots of luck. Nevertheless, it still retains an air of excitement.

Those of you who look for newer ideas won't buy it because it lacks originality. Those who do like it, won't buy it either because of Arcadia. You could say it is a very competent game with too much competition that is even better.

You are going to need a fast hand and eye coordination to cope with these Galaxia, they come so darned fast they just become a blur on my contact lenses.

Not that it makes the game unplayable, it just means you have to cross your fingers and blast for the opening seconds of a wave. Then you have to do your best to keep up with the mercurial attackers.

I'm off to rest my eyes before they start revolving in their sockets.

Now *this* is what I call a shoot-'em-up. Well-created aliens fly at you from all directions with enough speed to get you wondering how they did it. A nice feature, I thought, was the countdown at the top of the screen. Desite the fact that it didn't improve my game it helps you to prepare for the next screen.

I don't usually enjoy shoot-'em-ups but I liked this one - it even had my Dad playing.

A standard shoot-'em-up, though well written, packing good graphics and sound as well as quite a number of different aliens into the meagre 3.5K of an unexpanded Vic.