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Trantor, the last stormtrooper, has been abandone on an alien planet. By activating the main planetary computer held in the terminal building, the hero can escape.

Trantor finds himself near the terminal building's lift, and to progress further runs, ducks and jumps down the horizontally scrolling corridor. Throughout the mission, his bootsteps are dogged by a myriad of hovering droids and robots, whose deadly touch reduce Trantor's life energy. The stormtrooper is armed with a flame-thrower, which roasts any attacker within range. The problem is that every blast depletes the flamethrower's fuel, represented by a shrinking bar at the top of the screen. However, extra fuel is automatically picked up when a refuelling post is found and activated.

There are eight terminals in the complex, each of which provides a letter, which are ultimately made up into a computer-related word and keyed into the main computer terminal. An ever-decreasing time limit means that there's no time for dawdling in any sector, but discovering a letter resets the time clock.

Once he's assembled the word, Trantor is given a beam code which is used in the beam area, allowing him to escape the planet.

Running around the horizontally scrolling levels isn't particularly awe-inspiring, and within a couple of goes I'd practically completed the mission. The main character looks impressive, but unfortunately the animation is completely out of synchronisation with the background and therefore Trantor looks like he's sliding along rather than running.

The alien sprites are nothing spectacular, and the backdrops never struck me as being anything but mediocre. If there was a little more variety in the gameplay, Trantor might have been quite good fun - but as it stands it's a barely average arcade adventure that offers little more than a couple of hours entertainment.

Large sprites are all well and good, but I don't think this game is suited to them. The giant Trantor gives the action a claustrophobic feel, and the tiny playing are makes the game cramped and annoying.

It's difficult to dodge aliens, but fortunately they don't take much of a chunk off your energy. The action isn't particularly challenging, and I managed to attain a 96% ('YOU MUST BE BRIAN') rating after one session of play.

Once the mission has been completed, interest waves, and there's little to stop the game being relegated to the darkest corners of the software box. The all-round presentation is good, and the introductory screen great, but I just don't think there's enough challenge on offer to warrant the £10 price tag.

When you first see this, it looks like a very upmarket arcade adventure, with an enormous, brilliantly animated main character, a beautiful flame thrower weapon, and lots of little flying aliens to fry.

It's quite easy to start playing, as you can get quite a long way before realising how badly you're doing, and the game structure itself is very simple, being just another in the 'shoot, pick up and move on' theme. However, this is its problem, since there's little to do other than shoot, pick up and move on.

After a couple of sessions, Trantor lost its appeal, and I don't think I'll return.

Presentation 82%
Good introductory sequence, with pleasant on-screen appearance. Free audio track on the 'B' side of the cassette.

Graphics 65%
Bland backdrops, with a nicely animated main sprite.

Sound 48%
Mediocre tunes and effects.

Hookability 75%
Success comes easy, and therefore the action is appealing.

Lastability 41%
The gameplay isn't difficult, and once completed, interest swiftly wanes.

Overall 55%
An average arcade adventure with limited challenge.