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Far out in space, evil forces have invaded the third planet of Zetta Kenntaury. Taking the role of a Sky Twice agent, the player attempts to recapture the planet by battling his way across a horizontally scrolling landscape.

Eight different stages are negotiated, with natural hazards and alien species hampering progress. Radioactive puddles are leaped across, and creatures blasted or avoided as necessary. Contact with either hazard reduces the agent's energy, signified by the removal of a section from his energy bar, and the mission is restarted from the beginning of that particular stage.

I can't understand why American Action have bothered to release Sky Twice - it's absolutely dire. Precise jumps are required to negotiate landscape hazards, and since the control method is clumsy and unwieldy, it makes the action unbearably frustrating. There's little to do other than jump holes and shoot the occasional sprite.

Initial hopes of American Action's latest effort are raised by the impressive digitised loading screen. Life is nothing if not capricious however, and the game that follows is enough to make the most hardened C64 combat veteran wince in despair.

The jumping action is totally dependent on finding a diagonal, and horizontal motion is limited to three quarters of the screen - jumping near the right hand edge causes your character to 'hit' the scrolling, and usually fall into a hole! If you do happen to like this type of game... you have my sympathies.

Presentation 41%
Decent loading screen, but minimal instructions, and no options.

Graphics 34%
Landscapes, objects and sprites have all been treated with equal graphic contempt.

Sound 47%
Mediocre title tune, wth a droning and repetitive in-game soundtrack.

Hookability 15%
The incredibly frustrating gameplay is instantly annoying.

Lastability 8%
There are eight very difficult levels to negotiate, but the gameplay is unrewarding and tedious to an extreme.

Overall 7%
A loathsome and ridiculously overpriced game.