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Alien Breed can best be described as the Aliens licence that should have been. It grafts Aliens atmosphere onto Gauntlet-esque gameplay to create an addictive - albeit unoriginal - winner.

One or two players can take part simultaneously, and their job is to run around the six plan-viewed maze-like levels of a monster-infested space station, blasting seven shades of slime out of anything that crawls, slithers or lurks.

Fortunately, the problem that always afflicted Gauntlet (i.e. though fun, there was no real aim to playing apart from scoring points) has been averted by giving the players a task to complete on each level (normally of the 'find a location and blow it up' nature). Okay, so it's not exactly lifting the game into Arcade Adventure territory, but it provides enough of a goal to keep the player coming back for more.

The addictive gameplay is backed up by some super-slick scrolling and graphics (although the animation is a little perfunctory), and the term 'arcade-like' is very appropriate here. Throughout the use of sound to create atmosphere and tension is superb, especially when the station's self-destruct sequence is kicked in and the player has to find the exit before the place blows.

The only real gripe is that, given the game is for 1Mb Amigas only, you can't help feeling that something slightly more ambitious could have been attempted. But, as it stands, this is the best straightforward blast for months, and that's a good enough recommendation for anyone.