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A successful Starion player will have to possess excellent arcade skills along with a flair for solving puzzles. For it is truly a challenging game.

You play Starion, the brightest graduate of the Space Academy who must pilot the world's first timeship, the SS Stardate, in order to save the world.

This month's threat to civilisation is from time travelling aliens who are trying to destroy Earth by moving historically significant items from one time zone and moving them to another. Your job is to stop them.

To do this you must pilot Stardate and seek out and destroy all of the aliens in a given time zone. As you destroy each one, it will release its cargo which you can then pick up. The cargo is represented by letters which spell the item that has been taken. Unfortunately, you will have to find the aliens in the random order and so the letters that you find will be jumbled up. When you have destroyed all of the aliens and therefore have all of the letters you must solve the anagram.

If you solve the anagram correctly, you must return the item to the correct time zone.

The timezones are arranged in time grids each containing nine timezones. Luckily, items should always be returned to a timezone in the same block. When you have restored that timezone then you move onto the next.

Completing an entire grid leads you to the second of nine time grids in just one of three time blocks. To save your already boggling brain that calculates to a staggering 243 time zones and a total of more than 243 anagrams to solve. There are more than 243 puzzles for you must solve extra ones as you move out of each time grid and time block. However, you should remember that to get the letters in the first place you have to destroy missile-firing alien spacecraft.

The aliens appear on the screen as sector graphics (this is the technique made famous by Elite) and move quickly and smoothly just beyond your laser sights. Suddenly you realise that it's time to flex those fire button fingers and to prepare for battle.

Practice at the controls of Stardate is essential if you are going to stand any chance of attaining any of the higher skill ratings that are awarded at the end of the game. Luckily you can redefine the keyboard as you like and use it in conjunction with most of the standard joysticks. With these controls you can control the speed, pitch, roll and yaw of Stardate as well as aim and fire your lasers. Beneath the view of the enemy ships are your instruments which include two scanners which together give you warning of what's around you along with fuel and oxygen level indicators.

Finally, instead of losing lives you gradually wear through the six hull layers that protect Stardate which can either be destroyed by missiles and space debris but also melt away because of excess use of your lasers.

When your game ends you are awarded a rating that reflects the number of time zones, grids and blocks that you have saved. These range from the dismal Novice to the ultimate accolade of the Creator.

The game features both one and two player options and an intriguing tutor option which gives you a sneak preview of the aliens that you will later meet.

Starion is certainly an original and challenging game but it remains to be seen whether there is anyone good enough to play it. After all, there can't be many arcade playing, puzzle solvers who also have the stamina of a marathon runner.