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The peaceful inhabitants of Nemesis are under attack from the Evil Beings of The Sub-Space Star Cluster of Bacterion. As ever, help is at hand - you've volunteered to lead your squadron of three space fighters in a daring mission to defeat the mighty Bacterion invasion force.

Nemesis is a right-to-left scrolling shoot-'em-up which takes place over five different sections of the planet. The first mission involves a hazardous journey across the forest section, while later levels are set over a series of space islands, an alien graveyard an the inside of the giant Bacterion Battle-Cruiser.

Cruising through the levels, the fighter is constantly beset by Bacterion craft emerging from all sides of the screen. Some fly in to attack; others walk across the landscape firing missiles, and still more emerge from silos. Contact with an alien ship or bullet is fatal, and the fleet of three ships is reduced by one. A giant mothership has to be destroyed at the end of each level before your fleet can progress.

The space fighter returns fire with defensive laser bolts, and occasionally, destroying an enemy craft produces a glowing credit. There are six icons at the bottom of the screen, and collecting a credit highlights the far left icon. If another credit is collected, the second-to-left becomes highlighted, and so on.

Each icon represents one of six increasingly powerful features which can be added to the craft: Extra Speed, Air-To-Ground Missiles, Double Air-To-Ground Missiles, a Laser, Multiple Fire Power and a Shield, which absorbs enemy missiles. Pressing the right hand SHIFT key adds the highlighted icon's feature to the ship's equipment. The ship can carry a maximum of four Speed-Ups, Air-To-Ground Missiles, two Multiples, a Shield and either Lasers or Double Air-To-Ground Missiles - the icons become redundant once the feature is added. Lose a ship, and all of its collected icons disappear with it.

Nemesis isn't very polished, and there aren't that many levels - but it certainly has a lot to offer in the playability stakes. The action is fast and furious, and I particularly enjoy the thrill of being armed to the teeth with every conceivable piece of additional weaponry - so much power at the press of a button!

The playing area is a little on the small side, and there are a few minor, mildly irritating flaws - such as the occasionally dodgy collision detection, and having to press the SHIFT key to activate weapons - but otherwise Nemesis is fine.

It's not as slick as it could have been, but it's good enough, and stands out from the other horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-ups currently flooding the market.

It's here at long last - the arcade game that destroyed a large proportion of my wage packet last summer!

The good news is that it's not at all bad, nearly all of the original features have been included, and it plays very similarly to the arcade version.

However, there is some bad news - the sprites flicker quite badly when the screen gets busy, which can be very off-putting. But it's the playability that counts, and this has plenty. If you want a good arcade blast, this conversion is definitely worth your while.

Nemesis tries very hard to emulate its arcade counterpart and actually succeeds to a fair degree. The graphics are very smart with nice use of colour on aliens and backdrops, and many of the features of the arcade version are faithfully reproduced - consequently the action is fast and furious.

There are loads of different sections (although some are recycled to be used as later levels), and there is a strong urge to progress as far as possible simply to see the next section. This Commodore version should prove enough of a challenge - even to hardened Nemesis fans.

Presentation 71%
Four player option and unimpressive title screen. Awkward joystick/keyboard interaction.

Graphics 80%
Mostly good, although some of the sprites and backdrops are a little coarse.

Sound 78%
The same tune as the arcade version and some reasonable sound effects.

Hookability 90%
Instantly rewarding and addictive blasting action.

Lastability 78%
There are five tough levels to crack, although the action may become repetitive after a while.

Value For Money 78%
There's certainly enough action to warrant the price tag.

Overall 80%
A good, fast arcade blast. Check it out if you're keen on the arcade version.