A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there lived a thriving young planet called Plexar. On this planet an earlier civilisation had constructed a series of crystal roads between the 16 continents. The highways were long, beautiful and probably very useful but the Plexarions wouldn't use them because they thought they were magical.

Once a year, though, they would send a candidate to travel the roads in homage to their god and this year it's you. (Really? What a surprise.)

So what's the game about? That's easy - it's just like Gremlin's earlier Trailblazer only cheaper and with more features.

One way or another you are moving a ball along a pathway which scrolls out from the horizon. The exact gameplay varies over the levels but, like Trailblazer, the pathway is divided into a quilt of rectangles distinguished by shading. Some of these squares may be harmless bounced over. Diagonally striped ones transport you along the path - others even give you a little helicopter with which to zoom over obstacles. Other squares send you hurtling in the wrong direction, black squares with small white dots bounce you an extra square in the direction you're moving and then there are enormous black gaps in the track... Also robots roam the paths and have to be avoided, or they sap your energy.

In each continent you have three types of road to traverse. In the first you can only control left/right movement as you continuously move forward along the 3D paths. The third, however, is a vertically scrolling 2D landscape.

In all three levels, different squares have different effects.

Terrific stuff. I'm off now to get a T-shirt with 'I love Plexar' written on it. So will you, it'll keep you returning for more for weeks to come.

Label: Mastertronic Author: Paul Hargreaves Price: £2.99 Memory: 48K/128K Joystick: various Reviewer: Tony Dillon

8/10

Trailblazer style arrives on budget thanks to MAD. In the top ten budget releases for far this year.A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there lived a thriving young planet called Plexar. On this planet an earlier civilisation had constructed a series of crystal roads between the 16 continents. The highways were long, beautiful and probably very useful but the Plexarions wouldn't use them because they thought they were magical.

Once a year, though, they would send a candidate to travel the roads in homage to their god and this year it's you. (Really? What a surprise.)

So what's the game about? That's easy - it's just like Gremlin's earlier Trailblazer only cheaper and with more features.

One way or another you are moving a ball along a pathway which scrolls out from the horizon. The exact gameplay varies over the levels but, like Trailblazer, the pathway is divided into a quilt of rectangles distinguished by shading. Some of these squares may be harmless bounced over. Diagonally striped ones transport you along the path - others even give you a little helicopter with which to zoom over obstacles. Other squares send you hurtling in the wrong direction, black squares with small white dots bounce you an extra square in the direction you're moving and then there are enormous black gaps in the track... Also robots roam the paths and have to be avoided, or they sap your energy.

In each continent you have three types of road to traverse. In the first you can only control left/right movement as you continuously move forward along the 3D paths. The third, however, is a vertically scrolling 2D landscape.

In all three levels, different squares have different effects.

Terrific stuff. I'm off now to get a T-shirt with 'I love Plexar' written on it. So will you, it'll keep you returning for more for weeks to come.

Trailblazer style arrives on budget thanks to MAD. In the top ten budget releases for far this year.