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In the remote galaxy of Quanton, all the dreaded moon 1 citadels, each of which contains an arsenal of deadly weapons, are to be destroyed.

Unfortunately, the Galileo moon citadel has activated its automatic defence system. You must penetrate its defences and destroy the ten nuclear towers at its core. The citadel contains five levels, the alien inhabitants of each reduce your energy on contact.

You control the velocity of the main character and can manoeuvre him on to trampolines to make him jump. Other levels are accessed by colliding with the teleport bubble.

The nuclear towers are located on Level Five. Each consists of nine blocks which are destroyed by anti-radiation orbs collected from a dimension room. Collecting time cubes increases the amount of time you can spend in this room. Orbs are collected by moving across a three-by-three grid.

When time runs out in the dimension room, the player returns to Level One and must progress to Level Five, where the towers can be destroyed on touch, block by block.

Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: colourful but lacking in detail
Sound: burbly spot effects

The most unusual thing about Overkill is that the main character is unarmed - there's no killing at all! Gameplay is therefore limited to avoiding the nasties while collecting time cubes. Progress is initially very difficult as control is awkward when jumping and enemies are pretty hard to avoid. Backdrops are colourful but largely irrelevant and the main character isn't animated at all when he is floating through the air. Collecting orbs in the dimension room is extremely simple, as is the destruction of the towers. Once you've mastered the controls, the game becomes easy - I managed to complete it after about a dozen attempts.

Overkill is the latest offering from Grant Jaquest, author of Disposable Heroes (reviewed back in Issue 52), and I must admit that there's more than a passing resemblance. The graphics are bright, but simplistic, with blobby-looking sprites wobbling around very samey looking backdrops. The lack of a weapon, even to stun the meanies is an annoying omission, especially later on in the game when collision forfeits the precious orbs used to destroy the nuclear towers. A mildly addictive game, but not one of long term interest.