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Style merchants Palace pack another knockout punch with their latest offering, Rimrunner. Perhaps not as complex as previous offerings such as Cauldron I and II and The Sacred Armour Of Antiriad, Rimrunner does, however, have the immediate playability of the magnificent Barbarian.

So let's head out beyond the farthest reaches of the galaxy and prepare for a super-fast blast-'em-up. And Palace, renowned for strong streaks of originality of their games, have come up with something new to brighten up what could have been a jaded idea.

In Rimrunner's case, it's the hero, a bug-eyed insect-like creature, and his reptilian biped mount known as a Runner. Both these creatures are different and conceived not without humour.

Your job is to protect the Insectoid colonies against constant attack from their enemies, the Arachnoids. The Insectoids have built large force shields to keep out the Arachnoids. But these shields use up a tremendous amount of energy and the generators require constant supervision and recharging.

The job to protect these generators, situated at the edge of the colonies, has fallen to an elite body of Insectoid warriors known as the "Rimrunners". Their job is to patrol around the generators on their rather cute Runners, battle against the Arachnoids and recharge the generators.

Rimrunners face all sorts of alien onslaught, from a myriad of creatures, flying rock and fireballs. If you're quick enough, you can blast 'em to bits. If not, well... you'll soon learn to speed up your reactions.

The ultimate idea is to power up the five generators per level and progress through to the next one. There are nine levels in all.

The trouble is that besides the problems of the alien attacks, the generators run down at slightly different rates and to succeed you have to work out the best sequence to visit them. The sequence becomes more complete the further you progress into the game.

There is also a time limit in which you must complete the task. You can move left or right on each level and will eventually complete a loop.

The graphics are almost surreal in colour and the Insectoid and his Runner are really neat. If I'm honest, the whole game feels a little Minteresque.

The display at the top of the screen shows the positions of the shield generators and your positions (The shield generator marker changes from green to red when it's running out of juice); bonus and time indicator; score; the stamina of the Insectoid and Runner and the amount of runners left.

The Runner can take a few hits but will eventually be a gonner. He'll collapse on the floor, turn to bones and fade away. But don't despair too much.

The Insectoid, if hit, falls off his mount, rubs his head and gets back into the saddle as fast as possible.

Palace has come up with a nice idea of the high score table. The Insectoid cocks his gun and blasts the letters of the alphabet. It's very cute.

Rimrunner was designed by Barbarian wizard Steve Brown and programmed by Binary vision and the end result is a nifty little game.

Palace very rarely disappoint with their games and Rimrunner carries on the fine tradition. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to Barbarian II: The Dungeon Of Drax.