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Mounted Michael is stuck one the same train as a band of desperate gun-toting train robbers, who plan to make off with the railways gold shipments. To thwart their villainous plans, he must progress along the top of the train.

Mick can jump between carriages - and fall between them, which is fatal. He must also avoid the robbers' gunfire, or lose one of his three lives. And the train robbers have grenades too.

But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, so Mick packs his trusty pistol. He can bop off the baddies by leaping upon them, or giving them a taste of their own grenades.

The train includes flat cars carrying unstable loads, and leaking gas tanks which can snuff out Mick if he's not quick enough to find a gas mask. Tunnels provide additional hazards for this intrepid Canadian, but with his torch and limited battery power he can battle through their dangerous darkness.

There are nine trains for Mick to traverse, each carrying a team of robbers (These were lawless days, after all.) When Mick reaches the front of a train, he must board the small handcart on the rails, pump its handle and travel to the next train.

Control keys: definable
Joysticks: Kempston, Interface 2
Use of colour: patchy
Graphics: ugly but clear
Sound: spot FX and an unmemorable title tune
Skill levels: one
Screens: nine trains in one continuous scroll

'Stop The Express without the fun? Surely no-one would have the guts to reproduce Sinclair's three-year-old classic (CRASH issue 6, July 1984) as this load of rubbish? Mountie Mickie's Deathride is boring (and it's a pathetic name). The graphics are badly drawn, and there's no colour to speak of. Playability is the pits. Steer your train well clear.'

'"Yeeha, ride 'im cowboy", or something along those tracks. There've been a lot of games with old American locomotives in them lately - perhaps a new trend in software? And I couldn't help noticing the similarities this has to Stop The Express. It seems all you have to do here is shoot the baddies before they shoot you -but it's still an amazingly addictive game with good graphics.'

'The game is in total contrast to the title - it's simple and easily mastered, and has little lasting appeal. Still, the background graphics are very realistic and give a good feeling of depth. But this is spoiled by tacky and uninspired train and character graphics. And gameplay is impaired by atrocious collision-detection, which destroys the atmosphere.'