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Aboard your wheel-like craft, you are trapped in another world to the one you once knew, in another time, and a forboding new dimension of space - a phantasmagorical land, of bizarre constructions, forming your boundless prison. (Isn't this intro getting a bit flowery? Oh well...) This place is filled with weird and wonderful beings of a frightening beauty; but they are creatures locked in battle between the forces of good and those of evil, in a struggle for domination of the Netherworld. Being trapped on the Planet of Purgatory in the middle of all this is not the most comfortable situation to be in.

Luckily, you do have a chance of escape - albeit a slim one - via the colourless carbon crystals of diamond, the local currency. These gems are scattered throughout the dimension, and hold the key to your freedom. In order to reach them, the inhabitants of Netherworld have to be killed and their defences avoided: acid bubbles, vomited by demons; alien generators; acid blood (yuk!) ejected by goat skulls; bounder, hover, and scanner mines; gruesome tortured souls - all these are faced through the twelve sectors of Purgatory.

Your objective is to collect the required amount of diamonds in the time limit allowed, then exit to the next, harder, stage through a teleport system. In order to do this, many obstacles have to be avoided, or in some cases moved, and aliens must be destroyed with your quad-directional lasers.

Each level has walls and impassable land masses/structures of various types which form an eight-way scrolling maze; in addition, there are a number of useful (or otherwise!) objects. A diamond squeezer, shaped like an upturned U, will create a new diamond if a moveable rock is manoeuvred inside it. Some types of alien are created from hive-shaped generators, but a rock placed above these will stop the flow of creatures. Well-placed rocks can also deflect the path of scanner and bounder mines onto a metamorphosis wall, to create four new diamonds.

Circular teleportation devices rapidly transport you to one of their brothers in another part of the level, and paths through walls can be taken if a secret door - which looks very similar to other bricks - can be found. Extra time to complete the level is given if hour glasses are collected, making play marginally less hectic.

The aliens which maraud the dimension often release a glowing blue icon when killed, and this has ten possible effects. Icons taking the form of 100, 250 or 500 give that amount of bonus points when collected (obviously). A group of arrows gives extra ship speed, but if more than three are collected, you will be slowed down. A skull and crossbones signifies a demon killer, and touching one of these acid-spitting creatures will reduce it to a pile of bones if you have that icon.

Arrows pointing to blocks represents a brick smasher, which will allow you to make a hole in an otherwise impassable wall, hopefully giving access to move diamonds. A group of question marks gives a mystery bonus, as they signify four possible effects - two pleasant and two unfavourable. An extra life and a period of invulnerability (shown by a change of ship colour) can be gained, but also much confusion from reversed controls (the ship changes spin direction) and complete lack of control (the ship stops spinning). This is an icon for the gamblers only!

Below the main screen area which depicts this graphic action lies an information display. This shows, from left to right: the number of demon killers available for use (up to a maximum of nine), number of brick smashes possible (maximum of nine), your score, the level you are playing, your shield energy, time remaining to complete the level, and number of lives remaining. At the shield's highest power level, twelve hits can be taken before losing one of your three lives. Flashing numerals in the upper right corner of the screen show the amount of diamond gems still needed for completion of the level.

After completion of a stage there is an intermission screen during which, under a time limit, a scanner mine is guided onto a metamorphosis wall using the rocks provided. If completed, this gives an extra life.

This month Hewson have given us a strange ethereal shoot and collect game with weird graphics and tough gameplay.

Presentation-wise, the game has the usual quality title screen/score table front end but this is backed by a superb piece of music complete with a distorted guitar sound.

This simple introduction belies the fact that Netherworld is good, entertaining stuff, with varied stages and plenty of colour. The twelve levels each have their own particular atmosphere: you get a distinct feeling that every screen is a world away from the previous one.

The objectives are easily sussed, but the game itself still has a great deal with which to challenge any player, and there are enough levels to make continuing worthwhile. It's not the most astounding release ever, but it most certainly shouldn't be ignored.

Hewson's latest release is really just a shoot-and-collect game, so what makes it stand out from the rest? The answer is that programmer Jukka Tapanimaki has taken a look at this type of game and written Netherworld with an incredible amount of thought for the player.

Everything is so well laid out and easy to get into. The scenario is very typical of the genre with not a lot to do apart from shoot alens, move rocks and collect diamonds, but the game has a superb feel and atmosphere, aided to no small extent by the superb graphics and amazing Jori Oikkonen soundtrack. The action is not all mindless violence, since there is the bonus level which requires some careful thought (I haven't managed to suss it out yet!)

Netherworld can make you forget the poor Marauder episode in Hewson's history and will have you glued to your C64 for hours.

Last month, the cramped graphics and extreme difficulty of Marauder were a disappointment, but Netherworld more than restores Hewson's great reputation for addictive shoot-'em-ups.

Dodging and weaving through walls and rocks while shooting the various aliens is fun enough in itself, but there's a lot more to this game than that. What with rushing around space in a frantic attempt to find all the diamonds within the time limit, desperately hoping to discover a time-giving hourglass, or hastily arranging rocks to deflect a mine onto a metamorphosis wall, there's never a second to relax.

With action as compelling and fast-paced as this, you don't want to! The graphics are clear, detailed, and well animated, and the scrolling is very smooth; the title screen music is fantastic - a lively, very well composed piece which has some very sophisticated voices. This shoot-'em-up/puzzle combination works brilliantly - even if it has overtones of Boulder Dash - and I fully recommend you try it.

Presentation 80%
Responsive controls and colourful title screens.

Graphics 94%
Smooth multi-directional scroll, beautifully shaded, detailed sprites and backgrounds, and clever effects.

Sound 90%
Classy title tune and refined spot effects.

Hookability 81%
Initially tricky steering is offset by easily accessible blasting.

Lastability 82%
Twelve diverse levels over which the game's puzzle-solving aspect becomes as addictive as the fast shoot-'em-up action.

Overall 87%
Rapid shoot-'em-up and frantic puzzle solving combine to make Netherworld a very addictive game.