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It's all very setting out in your fighter craft to blast away at all and sundry, but you're not going to get very far if your spaceship's a bit poo. Such is the state of your vessel in this game, but at the moment you're riled enough not to care about trivialities like certain fiery death. You've heard that the boss of this planet has been spreading nasty rumours about your parentage and, paranoid fool that you are, you've decided to get your own back. This does however, put you into a sticky situation, because he happens to be the ruler of fourteen galactic systems and commander of several squadrons of deadly space beasties, all of whom are now on course to intercept and destroy you!

Your ship has three energy units, and if any of the boss-man's henchmen shoot or collide with your ship, a unit is lost. Luckily there are a variety of power-ups to bolt onto your fighter, and these range from a pretty simple shield to massive death-beams and rotating drone craft. Grab all thse you can because at the end of each level there's a superman guardian, which spews out more bullets than you've had hot dinners.

Producing a shoot-'em-up which is tough enough to suit hardened blasters and yet still playable is always difficult, but Naxat have come very close to achieving this with Paranoia. Right from the beginning, the bullets fly around the screen, keeping you right on your toes.

But instead of the game becomes an unplayable drag, it's addictive enough to keep you coming back for more. It's not a fantastic looker, although the sprites and backdrops are more than adequately drawn and coloured, and there's some good, meaty tunes to keep you bopping through the levels.

There are visually more exciting PC Engine shoot-'em-ups available, but I would imagine that, because of its mix of difficulty and addictiveness, Paranoia could still be an oft-played game long after others have been completed and stowed in a cupboard.