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What better way to finish off the year of the arcade conversion than with a real classic like Xevious? Well, U.S. Gold reckons it is anyway. I, for one, can't disagree with them!

The original coin-op appeared way back in the mists of time - but the game hasn't dated. You won't find any cobwebs on this shoot-'em-up. It's been converted by the underated Probe Software team - who are also working on other arcade conversions for Activision as reported in our news section last issue.

If this is anything to go by, we're in for a few treats in the New Year.

Xevious is a pretty basic, horizontally scrolling zapper. You fly your space fighter over a landscape of trees, lakes and built up areas in search of your goal - the alien mothership.

On the way you'll encounter hordes of intelligent alien attackers in many different shapes and forms.

There are also ground emplacements to deal with. These fire at you - but you're armed with bombs which you can use to blitz these buildings and the odd alien tank using the roadways which you overfly during your mission.

The scrolling is pretty smooth - and the graphics are generally black on one colour, but pretty detailed for all that. You can generally dodge alien fire because their bullets move pretty slowly, but watch out for clusters of bullets - these can really catch you out.

Also, try to shoot the alien craft as far up the screen as you can. This gives you more time to bomb the ground installations which send up those bomb clusters. And don't get trapped in the corners of the screen. That's old advice for experienced zappers like you - but it's still useful.

And watch out for the awesome flying mirrors! They are real killers.

Commodore graphics are a bit confusing to follow at first. The choice of colours isn't that great. But you do get the enhanced sounds of course.

There are 32 different kinds of alien ships and no wave is the same, 16 levels, four skill ratings and bonus screens - just like the arcade original.

There is a two player option plus a nice high score chart. Screen layout differs from machine to machine. The Spectrum has a split screen effect while the C64 is a full screen game.

Xevious is a good thumb-busting zapper for shoot-'em-up fans of all ages.

It may not have the colourful graphic frills of something like Lightforce but it's still pretty addictive. Check it out.