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Well, mankind's really gone and screwed up this time. Through overuse of industrial pesticides and chemicals, they've only gone and killed off the Earth's entire insect population, thereby throwing the planet's ecology into complete and utter chaos.

To try to redress the balance, man tried to create his own species on insects, but somewhere along the line, a mutant virus got into the DNA makeup, resulting not in a new breed of small, harmless, bugs, but a species of rogue killers. Now, though, the boffins reckon they're got it right, and they've created a super-fly, codenamed Venus, which is capable of seeking out and eliminating all of the mutants.

This is where you come in, guiding Venus through ten different horizontally scrolling worlds, each consisting of five levels, and all played against the clock. Venus has a built-in energy cannon, capable of six types of shot, ranging from a wimpy standard pea-shooter to a juicy four-way megablaster! Thing is, you don't have it all your own way because energy is depleted by contact with an enemy insect or laser bolt, and when the bar reaches zero, bang goes one of your three lives.

There are five types of icon scattered around, such as gravity reversal, which flips the fly upside-down and reverses joystick controls, time loss, super jump, continuous jump, and stunt, which stops Venus jumping altogether. Larger insects drop power-ups that, when shot, give things like extra lives, energy boosters, shields and the like.

If all five levels are completed, you move onto a bonus level, giving you the chance to boost your firepower and reclaim much-needed energy.

Bzzzzzz! This game is brilliant! A game about insects doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, and I approached Venus The Fly Trap with some trepidation. But I can safely say that this is one of the best 16-bit blasters going.

The graphics are large, bright, colourful, well defined and fit in to the game perfectly, and the tune that plays along is one of the best I've heard on the ST, and really suits the game.

Control of the fly is simple enough, but when the joystick controls get reversed, the stuff really hits the fan.

The bonus level bears a remarkable resemblance to P-47, but after blasting away like nobody's business and amassing yourself a building armoury of weapons, you feel hard enough to take on the world, never mind the next level.

The terrific visuals, the super-tough armaments and the possibility of finding hidden bonus screens at any moment will have you glued to your screen longer than that mouldy blue-bottle's been glued to the flypaper hanging in the lavvy.