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Cosily tucked away within International Planets HQ, an innocent missions controller hears a faint message over the intergalactic intercom. Out in the deepness of space, terrorists have overrun one of the space colonies. There's no choice, no one else can help them - you must send in The Quartet.

This deadly foursome of Edgar, Lee, Mary and Joe are the only hope for the isolated inhabitants. Each of the fab four has their own special abilities. But you can only control a maximum of two on each of your conquests.

Edgar has an astounding leap, useful in jumping from platforms; Lee is the quickest on the trigger of his specially adapted wide-beam gun. Young Mary is the only one who can handle a powerful bazooka and Joe is the fastest mover of the four. To progress through each level of the planet one of the quartet must seek out the mechanical monster who holds the key to the next level.

On each level pirates jump out of portals, attempting to reduce your power. Blast them out of sight or their attack results in temporary paralysis and a lowering of the hero's unique power. Littered throughout the each part of the planet are springs, shields, jet packs and other bonus goodies - all of which help The Quartet on their quest for the ultimate one hundredth level and freedom for the planet.

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Interface 2
Use of colour: monochromatic sprites, but varied surrounds
Graphics: poor
Sound: poor
Skill levels: one, two-player option

'Having played just one game of Quartet I felt 1'd seen enough. The screens are of three basic designs - containing a good mixture of colour and detail but nothing Inspiring. Control of the characters is very slack and tiring to use. The baddies are a boring bunch, neither originally drawn or well animated. Because of Quartet's lack of variation and its simplistic game concept, addictivity is very low. I couldn't stand going through 99 levels of this just to defeat some gormless collection of terrorists.'

'Quartet is one of those types of games you either love or hate at first sight. Although the idea of hacking around trying to save hostages and/or destroying the terrorists ' HQ by shooting all and sundry is not new, Quartet is good fun for a shod while, but if tires quickly. Which is a shame, because the graphics are reasonable on the whole, and some backdrops are nicely drawn. An average blast 'n' hack game.'

'Oh dear, this really is a poor game. The graphics are very bad, and there' s absolutely no challenge to any part of the game whatsoever. My first play, during which I expected only to find out how the game played, eventually lasted something in the region of twenty minutes, getting me to level 13. As I said, no challenge. In my view, whatever it costs, it's a complete waste of money.'