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Wild West Hero has one of the best cover illustrations on any current game. It shows a freshly-laundered cowboy blasting away with two six-shooters while a bandit lurks behind a cactus in the sun-drenched desert.

It's a smooth picture, and it's a smooth game inside.

Machine code graphics techniques beam you into the centre of the screen, where you find yourself amidst randomly-placed killer cacti and bandits.

A killer cactus is pricklier than a normal cactus, killing you on contact, and bandits do the same.

The difference is that the cacti stay still while the bandits home in on you. Luckily the bandits don't shoot, while you can shoot in the direction of motion, including diagonally, and you carry on shooting even when you stop.

Movement is by keyboard or Kempston joystick. You have three lives and an extra one every 10,000 points after 20,000 which is moderately difficult to reach.

The game is similar to Spectron, reviewed in this issue, both being variations on the arcade game Robotron.

Wild West Hero offers no variation in the waves of bandits it pits against you, unlike Spectron's mixed waves of robots, and the scoring system is less exotic. However, the graphics are good, the game plays fast, and it's easy to play. It probably boils down to a matter of taste - is it robots or bandits that you want to cut down?