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A once pleasant world, Orac, is now a planet under siege, as evil aliens have claimed it as their own. On a one-man mission to oblivion, you pilot the latest Slapfighter in a do-or-die mission against the alien swarm.

The surface of Orac vertically scrolls beneath, while you run the gauntlet of its new inhabitants. As you cut a swathe of destruction through the alien forces, certain craft and buildings release a yellow star. Collect this, and the first of a series of eight icons is highlighted. As further stars are collected, the next in the sequence is lit and so on.

Each icon represents an additional feature, armament or equipment. Extra Speed is the first to be gathered, followed by the option of adding Side Lasers, Wing Extensions (increasing your rate of fire), a Forward Firing Bombing System, a Front-Mounted Laser, Homing Missiles and Shields. The Speed and Wings icons have to be accessed five and three times respectively to benefit from their full effect. Some items are less effective against certaini areas of the alien defences, so the second icon in the series is used to switch back to normal shot.

Specific items of equipment have a cumulative effect, for instance the wing extensions increase the firing rate for the homing missiles, but have no effect on the lasers.

Colliding with one of the alien vessels or failing to avoid a hail of bullets, results in the explosion of your Slapfighter. When this happens, all the armament gathered and the icons collected are forfeit, leaving you with the Slapfighter in the default state.

For some reason I appear to be the only person in the office with reservations about this one. I can see the appeal - it's beautifully programmed, looks good and plays smoothly, it's just that it offers nothing new.

There's a distinct pattern to the alien attack waves, and failing to collect the required amount of stars before the screen fills with bullets leads to almost certain destruction.

Slap Fight is one of those games that I can take to a certain level and no further, which is something that makes me very frustrated. Having said all that, this is a good buy for fans of the type.

I'm always keen on a good bit of spriticide to liven up a quiet afternoon, and Slap Fight is quite simply the best vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up that has made its weary way to the Zzap! offices for a long time.

The graphics are excellent, containing loads of depth and plenty of detail. The alien forces are also quite smart and move around smoothly, although some of the larger aliens tend to glitch slightly. The merry tune that jingles along during play hardly matches the atmosphere of mayhem and destruction, and switching to 'effects only' is no improvement, being a series of high-pitched squawks and squeaks. Good fun though, and plenty to keep you stuck to your TV for a couple of weeks.

A coin-op conversion that's almost as good as the original is something that we don't see very often in the Zzap! office, so it's a pleasure to see a game such as this.

Slap Fight can't be faulted, the graphics, sound, and gameplay are all there - and they're all very good. The action gets extremely frenetic, and it's often very difficult to cope with everything that's going on.

For this reason, selecting an extra weapon in the midst of flight is very likely to get your killed (the office solution to this problem is to put a joystick on the floor and crunch it with your foot to select extra equipment... patent - J Rignall). This is one for the Zappers' collection.

Presentation 58%
Lack of restart, pause and two player mode, usually present on games of this type.

Graphics 81%
Beautiful backdrops and realistic alien craft make Slap Fight look really good.

Sound 59%
A jolly but ill-suited tune during play, and weak spot effects. Good loading track though.

Hookability 70%
Initial difficulty is eased by the collection of extra armaments.

Lastability 82%
Plenty of Orac to infiltrate and loads of aliens to slaughter.

Overall 80%
A superb arcade conversion and a great shoot-'em-up in its own right.