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At last it's here! After months of speculation and pre-publicity (cynics have called it "hype"), those programmers with Speedballs, the Bitmap Brothers have finished their magnum opus - and I'm happy to report that the wait was 100% worth it.

As you must know by now, Xenon II: Megablast is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up with bolt-on extra weapons to help keep those aliens extra warm. There's no plot as such, but play is set over five beautifully-drawn, full-screen, multi-speed, bi-directional, parallax scrolling levels, each of which takes its graphical inspiration from a different evolutionary epoch.

Your little spaceship starts the game winging its way through the undersea world of the Cambrian era, where the Earth was populated by sea slugs, peculiar shellfish and flat worms which wriggle in and out of coral structures. Subsequent levels take you through an insect-infested forest, a fishy scenario, a land of dinosaurs and finally, a futuristic spacescape populated by robot craft. Sooner or later the monsters all yield to a few bolts of hot photons so pump that fire button and they're history apart from a bubble that's left behind.

In the bubble there's an identifying letter to let you know what you can collect by running into it. Sometimes it's a smart bomb which nukes the entire screen and the nasties in it, but more often than not, it's luvverly cash to line your pockets.

The dosh comes in handy halfway through each level when the weapons shop appears. When you enter this section you're faced with the alien trader who's listening to Tim Simenon's (Bomb The Bass) sampled Megablast soundtrack on headphones, suitably filtered to make it sound just like you're sitting on a bus next to an alien trader playing Bomb The Badd too loudly over his headphones!

If you're got the dosh, you can pick up a meeeean arsenal. As well as the standard stuff there are mines, side shots, multi-firing drone ships, rear and split lasers, homing missiles and drone-mounted super shot cannons, flame throwers and macro lasers. One of the best collectables has to be Super Nashwan Power, which gives you all the weapons for ten glorious seconds of unadulterated blasting.

As well as being able to buy, you can also trade in your old gear for cash, but being an untrustworthy sort of alien, the trader will only give you half of what you paid for them.

For a price, the trader will even advise you on what weapons you'd best buy to get you past the huge (sometimes multi-screen) end-of-level monster sprites.

Overall, Xenon II is an impeccable product, and not just because of these gorgeous graphics, or the Bitmaps' technical feats that people were saying the ST wasn't capable of last year. It's gameplay make makes a game like this, and Xenon II has bags of that. It's fast, it's fun, it's addictive. Hype? Ha! When the game is this good, who needs it?

Terrific graphics, sound and gameplay make this undeniably the best blast of its type on the Atari ST. A definite must buy.

Using the samples from the recording, David Whittaker has transferred the whole Megablast track into the Amiga version, and the bass line backs the action throughout the game. Utterly superb.