This, on the other hand, is much more like it. Virtually identical in many ways to Tomcat, it's streets ahead in gameplay, looks, variety and sheer playability. Again a vertical scroller, Star Farce re-introduces that oft forgot feature of old Speccy games - colour! It's bursting with colour all over the shop, and what's more it's faster than Tomcat, and played over a larger screen. There are even 32 different levels (although judging by the first few, they're all much of a muchness).

Now, I'd admit it's not terribly original. In fact it's hopelessly unoriginal - Lightforce and Bedlam are its nearest relations. But it's tremendous fun and like all the best games, it's easy to start, hard to finish. It's odd, because Mastertronic hasn't been releasing that many new games recently, having concentrated on re-releases, and the few newies it has bunged out have been, in the main, rather ropey. But this is a fine game, as addictive as any full price shooter now on the market, but at a fraction of the price. Bargain? Bargain.