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In a world of rapidly changing fads and fashions, it's nice to see some things never change. The vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up has been around since the ZX81 and will probably still be going strong when other genres are long forgotten.

So what does Slap Fight have to offer the die-hard enthusiast? Anyone who has seen the earlier 8-bit versions will feel right at home here. The Slap Fighter moves around the screen blasting baddies. Some baddies deposit stars when shot. When the Slap Fighter is moved over one of these, a box at the bottom of the screen moves to highlight a new power which has become available to the player. There are eight of these. "Speed" increases the speed of the fighter - there are five levels of speed. "Shot" makes the ship revert to normal firing. "Side" allows the craft to fire sideways. "Wing" can be selected three times and enhances the firepower of the ship. "Bomb" gives the ship the ability to fire bombs. "Laser" fires a beam out the front. "Homing Missiles" are very effective; just hit the Fire button and missiles home-in on all nasties on the screen. "Shield" protects the ship from a number of hits.

So how does it all hang together in practice? Not terribly well, I'm afraid. Basically, despite the five supplied, it's a one life game. If you get destroyed, you lose any special powers you have accumulated up to them.

The backdrops are very colourful although occasionally it meant that alien shots were lost against the backdrop. The fighter itself is well drawn, although the shadow underneath flickered in a rather distracting fashion.

Extra lives are awarded at 50,000 points and each 70,000 thereafter. There are countless screens (I wasn't going to count them anyway!) of blasting - all very much the same. There are even some indestructible nasties every twenty seconds or so...

There are plenty of better shoot-'em-ups on the Atari ST.