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The scenario of this arcade game sounds a bit of fun: you, a hero of the spaceways, hear a distress call from the Mars colonists. Plague has struck and supplies must be landed.

Well, that's what they promise. What emerges is a mind-numbingly dire amalgam of Lander, Frogger and Space Invaders that software author James Hughes could probably sold as a magazine listing, on a poor day. Oh sure, 'there are some obvious touches that ought to be standard on games by now but often aren't (i.e. pause, sound and joystick options) but they're not enough.

The game unfolds as follows: choose your moment to launch from the mothership at the top of the screen, zipping down through an asteroid belt and try to land on one of two pods at the base of the screen. Then, presumably having divested yourself of the lift-saving anti-plague supplies, you must launch skywards and try to avoid swarms of aliens and their bombs before finally docking with the mothership again. Ho hum.

Of course you can shoot your mega rocket launchers at those pesky aliens but, all things considered, it's a lot quicker just to dodge them and move on to another of the "increasingly complex screns". In other words, it's a touch harder to land as the bases mysteriously move into deviously shaped tunnels.

Controls are well enough chosen (caps lock/ctrl for left/right and return for launch/thrust/fire) but the whole package has little more to offer than an average magazine listing. That may well be your cup of tea - but it is worth the money to save an hour or so typing one in?

D.R.