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It's 2048 and an evil Red Lord has come to power in Eurasia, the massive European and Asian landmass. Only one man can defeat him: Strider Hiryu, a super-fit athlete who uses a blindingly fast laser-sword instead of a gun.

Strider starts his mission by hang-gliding into Red Square, Moscow. No sooner than he lands than laser-spitting robot insects and Soviet troops are rushing to attack. Some of the flying insects leave containers behind when destroyed, split one open with your laser-sword and a robot will orbit around you; press fire and it throws a deadly steel ring.

Cut your way through enemy laser cannons, yet more troops, and a laser generator to burst into the Supreme Soviet conference room. Kill one man here and all the rest swarm together to form a sickle-headed monster which rapidly crawls around the room after your blood.

Strider starts off with three lives, and three units of energy, but there's a strict time limit to hurry you up. If you complete a level, pictures flash up with your enemies taunting you and the evil lord himself cackles "You dare fight me?!". Level two takes place on the icy Russian steppes with plenty of wolves eager to sink their fangs into you. Then there's a massive robot gorilla, a power station packed with walking laser cannons, a minefield and helicopters carrying vicious ballerinas.

The next level thankfully takes place in much warmer climes: a jungle populated by boomerang throwing Amazon women, flying piranha and massive dinosaurs. Defeat the Red Lord's forces here and he sends the battleship Ballog against you. This huge warship is weighed down with masses of gun turrets, troops, walkers and lots more beside. But even if you polish this off, the Red Lord isn't finished, he has creatures from the third moon to defend him in futuristic fortress. With all the powers of science and military arts behind him, would you dare pit your supreme athleticism and sweeping sword against The Master?

Strider is simply one of the most playable games I've played. It simply oozes class with its wonderful front end, intermission screens, superbly crisp samples and a superlative level of gameplay, The graphics throughout are great, not quite up to Xenon II standard but then these have to scroll in all directions, not just vertically.

What's more, you really do believe in the character, the scenario having a great sense of purpose to it with a wonderful atmosphere as a result. Easily the best US Gold game so far and just £20. Amazing!

C64 version reviewed next month hopefully.

Strider is one game that could never be arcade perfect, not even on the Amiga, but amazingly Tiertex have produced a game which captures the overall feel of the coin-op to a quite startling degree. The graphics are extremely impressive, and most of the arcade enemies are here, giving an astounding variety to both graphics and gameplay.

But despite the quality of the presentation, gameplay is not at all sluggish with combat fast and thrilling rather than slow and boring. I must confess to being one of the few people unimpressed by Forgotten Worlds, but with this one there's no doubting that US Gold have got it right. Even if you're not usually an arcade fan, check this one out - the Sci-Fi backgrounds and scenario add more atmosphere to this game than a couple of dozen of your more usual, fantasy coin-ops. All in all, an utterly essential purchase.

My God, this is absolutely fantastic! You can't fail to be impressed by the outstanding coin-op and upon hearing that it was going to be converted my first (printable) words were "No way!". I now eat my words with immense satisfaction as Tiertex produce an incredibly close conversion.

The freedom of movement is what the coin-op is all about and this comes across perfectly - the dexterity of the Strider leaves you breathless as he leaps and slides through five of the most graphically impressive levels you're likely to see for some time.

Other than the odd graphic omission from the coin-op, I simply cannot find fault in Strider. Tiertex have achieved the impossible, converting the monster coin-op and making it the best platform game to date.

Presentation 91%
Standard Capcom packaging with a fair-sized poster, plus excellent inter-level scenario screens.

Graphics 96%
The sheer imagination of the coin-op's backgrounds and enemies has been amazingly well replicated.

Sound 94%
Rousing main tune which varies according to the action. Good FX.

Hookability 97%
The desire to see yet more of this arcade spectacular is amazingly compelling.

Lastability 95%
It's not that hard to complete, but it's so much fan to play, you'll want to come back and the action does wraparound.

Overall 96%
A brilliant coin-op conversion crammed full of arcade playability.