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The world's been peaceful for so long that everyone's getting just a little bit bored. There are no wars, no diseases and no opportunities for making loads of dosh. Well, there is one - but only real hard men have tried it so far.

Out there in space, a mysterious race has hidden vast amounts of readies, guarded by its minions; find it, and you need never worry about the phone bill again. The minions' pockets are also lined with gold, all ready to be nicked - just wipe out an end-of-level mega ship and the money's in your hand.

Basically, this is a right-to-left scrolling shoot-'em-up with a two screens high display. Your craft is constantly pummelled by bio-mechanical ETs and asteroids - shoot them and they leave behind an impressive list of power-ups. On the first level alone, you can collect 2-, 3- and 8-way fire, front laser beam and laser-wall, front and rear flamethrowers, two grades of speed-up, twin-fire (horizontal and vertical), fireball, extra lives and shields.

On level two you descend from space into the hostile alien city, defended by ground emplacements and attack craft. Here you can find napalm bombs, homing missiles, snake laser and a kind of forward-firing mini nuclear blast. You need them all.

As you'd expect, things become a lot harder the further you get, but it all has a very similar feel, and there are only four (long) levels. The graphics work well, with some beautiful graded backdrops, but slow down when a lot is happening on screen. The sound, however, is a tad disappointing.

R-Type is about the best horizontal blaster on the PC Engine, but this is well worth a look if only as a cheaper alternative. It's frustrating to begin with, but it's well worth persevering with to see the brilliant later levels.

A very tough horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up with some original touches. Recommended to experienced blasting fans.