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Xevious is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up in which a lone fighter is up against an endless stream of alien craft. The battle takes place over a large forest backdrop. Alien fighters appear from the top of the screen and attempt to shoot or ram the fighter - either eventually results in the loss of one of five lives.

Fortunately, the fighter is armed with an unlimited supply of air-to-air missiles and bombs. Missiles are launched by pressing the fire button and are used to destroy enemy craft, while ground installations can be bombed for extra points. Bombs are released by holding down the fire button and directed by using a set of sights in front of the fighter. Most ground targets are harmless and offer no resistance to aerial assault, but a few launch ground-to-air missiles - so beware.

A large Mothership appears at regular intervals and can only be destroyed with a well-placed bomb. Dispose of the Mothership and the mission continues, only the aliens get meaner and faster.

The arcade version of Xevious is graphically pretty and fun to play. The official Commodore conversion however is graphically awful and very dull to play. The background graphics are really dire and they look muddled and unclear. Colour is used most unimaginatively.

The sprites are terrible, lacking colour and definition, and everything wobbles as it moves. The spaceship is very sluggish to respond to the joystick and it moves very slowly. Consequently the original game's addictive qualities are lost. Why this is so bad is a completely mystery to me - it could have been so much better, especially if you compare it with the standards set by Light Force.

If you want a good shoot-'em-up, forget this garbage and look elsewhere.

This is quite playable, but it's all so slow and reluctant to do anything exciting - even when provoked. It's enough to put you to sleep.

The aliens come down at a snail's pace and their shots jerk across the screen. The spinning mirrors look more like slates than mirrors, and they seem to flap down the screen rather than spin.

A banal tune plays throughout the game, and combined with the ear-grating spot FX I was driven up the wall. Ten quid is a lot to pay for such a slow and monotonous shoot-'em-up.

What should have been an attractive and playable shoot-'em-up has turned out to be bland, slow and tedious. It's sad that US Gold have released such a poor conversion.

Xevious is so suited to the Commodore's capabilities - yet this conversion is incompetent. It's visually and aurally coarse, and 'feels' shoddy to play. Terra Cresta is also quite a dull shoot-'em-up, but at least it shows that this sort of game can be done effectively on the C64.

If you want a decent vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up, get Light Force - it's much more impressive and playable than this junk.

Presentation 78%
Three 'skill' level settings and a one or two player option. Pathetic title screen.

Graphics 31%
Very poor backdrops, sprites and use of colour.

Sound 15%
Annoying tune and poor sound effects.

Hookability 34%
Fairly playable, but tedious.

Lastability 20%
Slow, unrewarding and dull.

Value For Money 13%
Vastly overpriced.

Overall 21%
Appalling conversion of a playable arcade game.