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In Inertia you are invited to pilot a little whirlwind-shaped ship over a landscape of tiles all of which are joined together to form a massive maze of twists, turns, ramps, hills and channels. Your ship is of the thrust in one direction and keep moving type, meaning that you will need to fire in the opposite direction to stop or slow down.

To stay alive you will not only need to keep away from the edges but also glide over special shaded titles, as well as giving you points they will reset the timer, which will kill you if it reaches the top of its travel. A neat, if unoriginal little idea that sometimes has you charging about in a desperate and careless search to save your ship.

The view is orthogonal, as in games like Knight Lore and Marble Madness, the former of which this game is very loosely based on. Three-dimensional plotting routines are notoriously difficult to implement on two dimensional screens. Unfortunately the feeling here is that your craft very often appears to be completely detatched from the landscape - before you realise it you have blundered off the edge, resulting of course in a quick bzzt! sound which signals the demise of your ship.

A minus point here is that only a very small section of the landscape is visible. More than often I found myself with nothing to support me, followed of course by a quick bzzt!

Various tiles, which have adverse effects on your ship add interest and generally spice up the gameplay. They reverse controls, speed you up, slow you down and generally provide the much needed 'Arggggh!!' of the game. Tiles which are of more use are jump tiles which propel your ship in a vertical direction, which I can say takes a bit of imagination to visualise!

Overall, Inertia is an addictive little game that will keep you coming back for more.

Paul James