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You control Rocket Roger, our intrepid hero with backpack-and-all, in his effort to collect 99 crystals from above and below the surface of a planet where his rocket has crash-landed without too much apparent damage.

It is an eight-way scrolling game with a little too much similarity to Son Of Blagger for my liking and I do not think the added feature of being able to fly compensates for this. The thirty square feet of playing area boasted does not seem to pose as big a challenge as Son Of Blagger but it is still pretty difficult.

The planet surface where you start is littered with volcanoes spitting lava and you aren't safe from these anywhere on screen. Spaceships and descending meteors are also early dangers but judicious use of your jet pack and the fire button can get you past them.

The crystals fuel both your jet pac and your spaceship so you have to keep up your collecting to avoid crashes. This isn't easy in the caves where laser beams and sliding doors bar your way.

Graphics are slick and professional in all respects, including the nasties which guard the entrance to the lower world and all those in the underground zones which the game is divided into. The scrolling is what you'd expect from Alligata - the best. There isn't an awful lot of sound though.

An important word of warning - *you cannot use a joystick*!! Boo! Hiss! I hear you cry. Never mind, there are only four keys to use, and you can really forget the jump key with your super jetpac.

You could collect crystals or simply explore the underground caverns.

Staying in a zone will result in being killed by a vicious football. Do not hit the edges of the caves or any aliens. Don't run out of fuel either. All will result in losing one of your five lives.

Plenty to keep your interest for a long while.

With a playing area 90 times that of the area seen on-screen, stacks of variation in the aliens, missile command style explosions and plenty of 'whizz-bang' sound effects, Rocket Roger will set your pulse racing every time you play. It easily outflies, outmanoeuvres and outguns any opposition from arch-rival Jetpac.

I found Roger's rocket rather insensitive to control, particularly when you can only use the keyboard. This means I kept plummeting to earth instead of gently gliding downwards. This, combined with the fact that you cannot see the ground at maximum height, caused many fatal crashes on the craggy planet surface.

If you can get the hang of the control, the game presents lots of challenges with a shoot-'em-up feel to it and an awful lot of crystals to collect.

An extremely addictive game this, with many original touches. The graphics and the movement are brilliant. The controls, though, are extremely difficult for a gamester who relies solely on his joystick but this is my only grumble.