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Nice one, this. Instead of battling past the vicious Vlergs from the planet Zug so you can dock with the Starship Saccharine, you have to splatter sausages and batter budgies (no letters from budgiephiles please) and then dock with the Starship Saccharine. Not very original but this is what I've been waiting for since I got my C64 - pure violence.

None of those namby pamby cute games for me (I spit on Pac-Man!). Killing is fun, especially when the killee crumples up to the sound of wonderfully violent white nois.

The game resembles Arcadia twisted through ninety degrees. The controls are nice and simple: Up, Down, Thrust and Fire. A game to play on Monday mornings. No concentration needed. Just sit down and destroy.

Now back to the sausages and budgies. The budgies drop normal budgie-type things on you. Obscene but expected. The sausages are realistic and look freshly cooked! The game has real food appeal as its cast of baddies also includes a violent herd of mushrooms (Is it a herd? Maybe a flock?). Anyway, giving them a deadly dose of death ray is fun and it's all very addictive. This is the sort of thing that scares Archbishops into writing to The Times about how this computer lark is all violence and should be stamped out before it goes too far. Still, it all oozes the touch of a professional with pretty title screen and comprehensive instructions.

One moan though (and there usually is one). Galaxia is totally devoid of a joystick option. Pretty silly if the machine comes complete with a joystick port! It wouldn't really bother me that much if the author's idea of comfortable keys didn't very on masochism.

If synthetic violence does happen to be on your list of ten favourite pastimes I think Galaxia could be a sensible buy for you. It was certainly a sensible blag for me.