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On a floating space platform dwells a race of droids. You are one of the low-life machines, ambitious to elevate your mechanical carcass to the high caste of the Omega Droids. Four of these almost invincible creatures already exist - but if you can become the fifth you can destroy them. (Why? Because you're nothing but a nihilist at heart!)

To become an Omega Droid you must destabilise seven ionisers by sucking them dry of their energy and using it for your own reserves. You can find clues (mostly suggesting you destroy everything in sight) in information terminals, and use teleports to transport yourself through the platform's superstructure and its system of air locks.

Movement in some areas is restricted by force fields, though these can be disabled with the right pass.

Fellow droids slide across the platform, and in this extraordinarily destructive scenario you either ram them or are rammed. There is a subtler, hands-off approach to weakening and destroying other droids: gather weapons from the several arsenals.

Once you're through a force field, you can acquire better weapon systems, vital to progress. Points are awarded for moving into new areas via a force field and for blasting out other droids.

Once all the platform's seven ionisers have been destabilised by your eponymous anarchist, you can enter the Meson Interruptor and destroy everything in sight - and that includes those four Omega Droids.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: monochromatic; a bit too bright for comfort; but the scrolling is smooth (two reviewers felt!)
Sound: the odd whine and beep

At first I was quite happy with Nihilist it's very like the Commodore 64 Paradroid, which can only be a credit. And its really easy to get started in - but that affects the addictivity. And indeed there's not much content to keep you going, despite the attractive presentation and graphics (which are a bit bright for extended periods of play).

Nihilist is uncannily similar to the old Commodore 64 hit Paradroid. But though it's playable, it fails to create any atmosphere to capture the player's imagination. Paradroid was a complex, highly addictive arcade adventure; Nihilist is a poor imitation. The monochromatic graphics have little detail, the scrolling is jerky and this bland, unattractive game is almost immediately forgettable.'

I suppose someone had to have a go at Paradroid on the Spectrum eventually. The idea of Nihilist is very simple, but it's spoiled by an awkward control method and eye-straining pixel-packed graphics. True, the smooth scrolling is quite an achievement considering the amount of memory being moved around. But scrolling and automatic doors and extra weapons don't make a game; there's very little content to keep anyone interested for more than five minutes.