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Ultimate has been very quiet since it was acquired by US Gold. This is its first new release since Gunfright nearly a year ago. The long wait has been for a futuristic arcade adventure where a maintenance robot has to fight off aliens that are invading his ship.

The aforementioned aliens have taken over the brain of your ship, destroying all active pans in their path. It is your job to control the robot and guide programs from the transmitter to the receiver in each section. If the program runs into a disposal chute it will be lost.

Walking into walls or aliens will deplete your energy level rather rapidly. Fortunately for you, replacement battery packs are dotted around the brain.

The playing area is a large 3D maze which scrolls as you go around it. It's split into nine sectors, colour-coded to warn about alien activity. Some walls within the brain you can shoot. These and the active cells around the maze can only be shot by your blaster rather than your normal laser.

Much of the skill of the game lies in picking up and dropping cones to guide the program along a path to the receiver. These can be destroyed, so you have to constantly be on your toes.

The scrolling is smooth, the depiction of the characters is clear, the explosions are good, though with little sound to back them up.

Why do I get this feeling of deja-vu every time I play an Ultimate game? Okay, you can have variations on a theme, but they've had a year to produce this game and still come up with something that isn't that different from Gunfright and Nightshade. The enemies have changed and the task is slightly different, but it still has the same feel to it.

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, because it is in fact enjoyable to play. Still, I don't like seeing games getting stuck in unoriginal ruts.

Nice clear view.

20,000

Graphics 63%
P. Good 3D scrolling.
N. Single-colour characters.

Sonics 38%
P. Good shooting effects.
N. Sound never was Ultimate's strong point.

Grab Factor 60%
P. Difficult but absorbing task guiding the program.
N. Controls are awkward, could have been simplified.

Staying Power 68%
P. Large, detailed playing area.
N. Difficult task to achieve,

Overall 63%
P. Ultimate is still skilled at doing 3D graphics.
N. A year's break and they're still producing the same sort of games.