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New games by Tony Crowther are becoming major events, and Suicide Express is no exception. The story behind it is interesting. Crowther used to work for Alligata and, earlier this year, he sold them Loco, our July game-of-the-month. Then, after a disagreement, he switched to a new company, Gremlin Graphics.

So, since he receivesd no royalties for Loco, he's created a new version for Gremlin - same basic idea, but altered enough to give the game a completely different look and feel. Instead of a steam-powered engine chugging through stations, you have a gleaming ultra-modern super-train zooming through a spectacular futuristic landscape. As in Loco, the top half of the screen shows a large side-on view of the train while the bottom is devoted to a scrolling map of the tracks. This shows where you can collect ammunition, warns you of trains heading your way, and of fighter planes and hovercraft trying to stop you from getting away.

The reason they're determined not to let you escape, is that you happen to be a criminal on the run. These threatening craft will appear on the top half of your screen whenever they get close enough to be dangerous which is pretty often.

As always on Tony's games, there's superb music, this time lifted from Sky. It accompanies you along the track while you listen out for the bleep, bleep, bleep which means you've got too much ammo and are about to explode.

If you don't manage to off-load some of it, your express comes to a violent end. The faster you travel, the more likely you are to collide with an oncoming train.

However, if you travel slowly it is just as likely to be suicidal. Because you get hit from behind.

Sound and graphics throughout are brilliant, and it even has speech at the beginning and end of every game. Your score is zero, zero, one, five, nine, six, zero intones a throaty voice.

So, if you like travelling by train, buy a ticket for the Suicide Express!

Loco was an amazing experience, but some people found it lost its interest after a few hours' play. Suicide Express, while based on the same idea, looks completely different and rattles through at about four times the speed. Frankly, it's stunning.

The fast-scrolling background scenery, despite having only two colours, took my breath away. Quite magnificent, and there's about 14 screens of it before it recycles. The hyper-modern trains, aircraft and saucers also look superb.

Most important of all, the game *feels* fantastic. As you'd expect from Crowther, it's ultra-smooth, but the extra speed, and the fact that you can slow down or accelerate your engine give it greater playability and addictiveness than its predecessor.

A hushed and awed silence fell over the office as the smoothest graphics I've seen zipped across the top half of the Commodore's display.

The game is more playable than Loco and has a different but equally impressive musical accompaniment. After seeing this game kids from 1 to 100 are going to want to be train drivers again.

Suicide Express leaves Loco standing.

The real difference, for me, was in being able to vary your speed, giving Gremlin's game a real tactical edge over in predecessor. I suspect, however, that most people won't bother about varying their speed - they'll just go hell for leather, because the action gets blindingly fast. Yessir, I'll ride all day on this one.