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So you're a young lady, judging by the cover art, checking out an area called Lavey which has a bunch of valuable resources laying around for you to collect. Apparently your girly thief needs the skills of an artisan though, so if you don't bake your own bread or brew local ale get the 'bleep' outta here!

The title screen treats you to a rogue's gallery of what you'll find in the game. Mostly the relentless type which are out for blood along with teleports and blocks that require keys to open. You can press 'O' for options, to redefine keys, etc, or press fire to start the game. As soon as it started, the game reminded me of an arcade game called Solar Fox by Bally Midway from 1981, which I played using M.A.M.E. a few years ago, and also Tranversion on the Spectrum by Ocean Software back in 1984.

Your main aim is having to collect all the gems in an arena before the timer runs out. Any time remaining is a bonus added to your score. Controls are directional along with fire which also turns into turbo speed if you hold it down. The initial enemies are moving turrets which glide along the edges of the arena. These can be shot to stun them momentarily. Further enemies and elements from the rogue's gallery are introduced as the game progresses.

Very little is static in the game. The arena edge pulsates with colour, as does the background grid pattern [To be honest, the ZX Next colours look amazing! - Ed]. All the enemies move around smoothly. Controls react well to your inputs and collision detection is not the unfair, nasty type. Tyvarian has eight arenas per level and at the start of a new game you can opt to start at any level you've previously reached.

In comparison Tranversion has eight arenas and four of those were bonus arenas that were all the same. Solar Fox has at least 60 racks with an additional fifteen bonus racks which are all different. Tyvarian is much more like Solar Fox. Even the timer pays homage to it.

The Tyvarian gameplay is fun, simple and very close to Solar Fox. Everything moves; nothing stays still.

The game has wonderfully crisp graphics which you'd expect from this well renowned development team, with sound effects that match the game style, including some rather jolly upbeat music.

I was pleasantly surprised with the silky smooth movement of your character, which makes for wonderful playability.

The arena backgrounds are a bit sparse. However, I would imagine detailed backgrounds would actually negatively affect the gameplay, as it would then be difficult to see collectibles and enemies. So, no dislikes really.

Tyvarian is a very good game. It is yet another highly polished product from Rusty Pixels. It's not quite as fun as Warhawk or Baggers In Space but it still feels amazing that finally playing a game on literally the Next revision of the ZX Spectrum is exactly like playing a game in the arcades of the eighties, and sometimes even better. Can't help but get warm fuzzy feelings about that fact.