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We've all seen movies like ET, Starman and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, where friendly aliens land on Earth and help mankind. The people who see these creatures from another world are unafraid and soon make friends with them.

What a load of crap. If you saw a little green man leap out of a spaceship in real life, you'd cack your panties and leg it. But the heroes of this game are a hardy breed who lug large, alien-splattering guns around, and they ain't afraid to use 'em.

Space Gun is a one- or two-player game so grab a pal and prepare to zoom around space as your team of crack commandos waste the deadly aliens, who've very kindly decided to try and take over our solar system.

There are six levels split into three or four sub-sections. The main part of your mission is to rescue a bunch of civilians, who were working quite happily until the bug-eyed beasties attacked their space station and spirited 'em off. At least one hostage from each section must be saved from a fate worse than the Ed's singing so go to it trooper! Fail to free at least one hostage and you'll be a laughing stock.

In true Aliens style, the hostages are found hanging from walls or ceilings. They're wrapped in cocoons which you shoot away to free them. Once you've saved as many hostages as possible, sneak them past the aliens and deliver them safely to the space base. Simple, eh?

The game starts aboard the space station, viewed through the eyes of your character as you stalk the corridors in search of the alien scum. They certainly aren't shy about coming forward - pretty soon you're buried under several thousand pounds of alien warrior, industriously trying to rip your head off.

So now's a good time to press the fire button and spray some lead around. The gun's used by the time-honoured tradition of whizzing the floating cursor around the screen and letting rip. But the aliens don't sit and take it, they rush at you and attempt to either bite or slash your trail body. Of course, this lowers the old life meter and if you take too much damage you become alien din-dins.

There are several types of xenophobic creature, all bent on your destruction.

Small, red, bug-like beasties hang from the ceiling and drop onto your bonce, while huge four-armed green monsters go straight for the throat. The red creatures are very often killed by a single burst of gunfire, the bigger monstrosities take longer to blow away. As you blast 'em, bits of flesh fly off, and if you're lucky an arm parts company before you're slashed to ribbons.

The carnage continues until you reach the Mother Alien on the sixth and final level. If you manage to pull all this off and emerge unscathed, you're a jammy bast.

Ocean are on a bit of a winning streak, aren't they readers? After the Crash Smash'ed Hudson Hawk and Smash TV, they pop up with this corker. I know the Operation Wolf format is as old as the proverbial hills, but it's proved to be very popular with the punters (and certain journos).

Space Gun is no pushover. The aliens are mean muthas who take a heck of a lot of blasting before they die, which is more than can be said about the heroes. Game after game I was killed by aliens who leapt out of dark and dingy corners. But half the fun is the suspense created by not knowing when you'll be mauled to death by a reject from the Crash office.

Images, the programming team, have done a wonderful job with the graphics - a rainbow of colours dazzle the eye but there's very little colour clash.

Those of you who love this 'gung-ho' game style should take a look. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some aliens to splatter.

Wow, trip out city, maaa-n! This mean game has more colour than a rainbow-wearing Jason Donovan's technicolour dreamcoat (and Wozza's neck)! It's like Line Of Fire with lots more playability and much better graphics.

Movement around the corridors is automatic, so the trigger-finger's constantly at the ready to blast away the variety of meanness that pops its head around the corner.

Space Gun could easily be renamed Kidney Bean Wars because the things you fire at the aliens look just like red kidney beans! They add to the mass of colour created by the brilliant backgrounds and sprites - which are full screen size at times.

There's one dazzling game in here, too, and some neat touches - arms drop off, heads exlode and the aliens still keep coming back for more! For a non-stop shoot-'em-up extravaganza, get Space Gun - it's wicked!

Overall 91%
A whole spectrum of colours (pardon the pun) and non-stop shoot-'em-up action!