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The man with the shiny metal armour is back, and this time he's brought a really big gun. Everyone's favourite cyborg Turrican returns to the Spectrum screen in this budget re-release of his second violence-packed adventure.

Turrican is a cyborg with a mission, and suffice is to day that it involves killing inordinate amounts of aliens to ensure universal peace and freedom (except in the immediate vicinity of Turrican himself, that is.)

Turrican 2 is a platform shoot 'em up much in the mould of the original Turrican. Turrican must traverse this landscape, killing all he sees. To aid him in this crusade, Turrican's gun has a handy seek and destroy gadget attached to it, which is activated by keeping the fire button held down. Whilst doing this, Turrican cannot move, but his laser homes in on any nearby opponents, causing them to die with the minimum of hesitation.

The graphics of Turrican 2 are certainly colourful. It's just a shame about all the attribute clash this causes. This self same colour problem can make it very hard to see incoming projectiles until it's too late, as well as looking somewhat messy. Still, playability is still there by the shovel load which is what you really want in a shoot 'em up, in the final analysis. The controls are a little slow (especially for fire), but as the emphasis is more on the platform part of the game anyway this doesn't really ruin things.

Still, when all's said and done, Turrican 2 has been seen and done numerous times before, and a lot better in some places.

Label: Kixx Memory: 48K/128K Price: £3.99 Tape Reviewer: Ed Laurence

If you're a real platform shoot 'em up fan and really want to spend £3.99, Turrican 2 is for you. It's got more action than you could ask for and more aliens than you could wish for.