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First things first: there is no way you can argue that Game Over II isn't good value. There is a lot of game here for the money, from outer space shoot-'em-ups through R-Type style tunnels to Rastan-like beating and blasting - almost as much as one of those budget compilations. With winter setting in, you need something to fill the evenings.

The 8-bit versions come with the first one on the flipside. Add this to the free poster - featuring some of the most attractive but least relevant box artwork we've seen for a while - and you've got quite an attractive little package for your Amstrad or C64.

The game comes in two loads, the first of which you have to complete before you gain the access code for the second (and no, I'm not going to tell you what they are). Let's go through the levels in order, shall we?

After the nice title screen, we're straight into the action with a bang as we approach the enemy prison planet. Two sorts of aliens approach - those that fire back at you and those that swirl around the screen - as well as a number of asteroids.

Unfortunately, your ship will insist on drifting back to the left of the screen at every opportunity - leaving you very vulnerable to incomings from the left - and shouts of "That came nowhere near me!" could be heard to echo around the office. If your ship was more manoeuvrable, everything a little less jerky and the collision detection less ropey, it would be a very playable little Amstrad game.

It's down the tunnels and into the planet next, for a - thankfully short - three minutes of the worst R-Type clone ever seen. This hardly bears writing about, except to say that on the Amstrad the snakes die very easily, and you should be able to get through without losing a life, while the ST features the world's worst collision detection. Woe betide you if you dare venture anywhere near the top of the screen!

The last section of this load has you step out of your space ship and mount a space-ostrich thingy. Armed with a "photonic" blade which looks like a giant yo-yo on the Amstrad, you stash your way through a swampful of giant frogs and pterodactyll riders. Come out the other side and it's the end of load time, just in time for a cup of tea and a sticky bun.

Throughout Load Two you play a jet pack equipped little chappy, armed with a variety of weapons as the phases go on. There are six stages, the first of which involves using your jet pack to keep above the action as much as poss, while you roll a tame ball-shaped creature into hostile members of the same species. As you enter the alien base there are a variety of bad guys to cope with, including men on living, biting Space Hoppers and floating monstrosities which materialise in front of you.

By now you should have picked up a gun as you make your way through the maze of tunnels, eventually coming into a wooded area where the key to a blue door lurks. There are plenty of extra lives hidden around here, so you can afford to die a few times and still continue the game. Through the door lurks a monster-filled lake, a section where you must use a helicopter to avoid falling rocks and leaping lava (decent of the aliens to leave a Jet ranger lying around!) and the final level where you get to free your friend from prison.

The whole thing is laughably bad on the ST - no wonder they haven't bothered with an Amiga version - but the 8 bit package is generous, and while it won't set the world alight, could be a wise purchase. Though C64 owners are - still - spoiled for choice, there is too little around on the Amstrad for this to be ignored.

None of the shoot-'em-up styles that make up the various levels are good enough to stand up on their own, but together they make for a quite appealling package.