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The Streetwise label seems to be an arcade game off-shoot of Domark and in this guise Orbix the Terrorball has been released.

It may not be a wholly original arcade game but it rings the changes a little on some traditional ideas.

With a name like Terrorball it would be pretty surprising if this game lacked balls, or didn't have at least one. Sure enough, you bounce all over the place. You bounce slow or you bounce fast, it depends on the controls, but one thing is for sure - you bounce into a lot of things and hardly any of them do you any good.

The screen is pretty clever, a fully scrolling 3D landscape (two-colours only of course) littered with assorted geometrical shapes and other peculiar objects. Very many of these objects wish to kill you or otherwise hinder your bouncing progress. Naturally there are other problems namely the nasty spiders (yuk) and the other ball-like-thing-with-flickery bits on it. You can blast them and miraculously they turn into extra energy (and you need it) but they are incredibly difficult to hit.

There is a plot. It involves collecting six bits of a spacecraft, rescuing the crew and getting them off this distant planet.

Getting the bits involves first finding a detector (a little white blip on a radar screen) then finding a factory droid (a cross on the screen) which is running away. You bounce furiously after it, trying not to bump into anything, if you catch it you blast it, it drops the part and you take it to the launch pad (with a time limit).

I sort of enjoyed Orbix The game looks pretty good, but I found it infuriatingly difficult, and ultimately, later levels get even more difficult, I think it might get a bit tedious.

Still, not a bad start for the Streetwise label and could be an outside bet for the charts.

Label: Streetwise Author: John Pragnell Price: £7.95 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Graham Taylor

***

Fairly original bounce the ball game, with clever 3D graphics. Difficult and perhaps lacking in variety in the long term.