Stand by for yet another space shoot-out, I thought to myself while watching Suicide Rebel Droids load. The graphics are not up to the Beeb's considerably capabilities, I thought, as the first screen flashed up. And the sound, well, that's not great either.

But slowly I found myself quite enjoying actually playing the game, despite my reservations - which only goes to show that appearances can be deceptive.

Here's the scenario. You are a space fighter pilot on a mission to destroy rebel droids who have escaped from the labour planet where they were banished by the Emperor. They must not be allowed to return to Earth. Shades of Blade Runner here, I think!

The rebel droids have stolen various spacecraft to make their escape bid. And they come diving at you on a suicide mission to help their droid buddies reach freedom.

There are several stages to the game. You begin flying blind in a dust cloud and the rebel ships spiral out of the gloom to attack you. Your ship can take ten direct hits before it is destroyed and you cannot dodge the droids' suicide runs. So it's kill or be killed!

You move down in stages toward the surface of Gridworld during your pursuit of the rebel droids. On the surface, you must destroy their landing pod if you are to continue your mission.

As already mentioned, the graphics are not up to the Beeb's high standards. The ships are drawn in vector-line graphic style. You have the option of playing using the keyboard or joystick - but I found the keyboard version fairly difficult to control.

Game action is not bad but, although I quite enjoyed my session with the game, I was left wondering just how long the appeal of blasting droid ships would last.