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Not satisfied with releasing one version of Aliens, Activision have milked the costly licence dry, and now we have the US version on our screens in the good ol' UK!

The LV-426 (now known as Acheron) is a space station floating somewhere out there in the depths of the galaxy. Archeron holds chilling memories for you as last time you were there, there were Aliens popping out of your associates' stomachs faster than a greasy burger after a heavy night out. The aliens have now returned and Archeroni is overrun with them. You're the only person who holds any knowledge of the aliens, so up you must go with a new team of marines to save the galaxy from these parasitic creatures.

Aliens is organised into a compendium of six games which follow the plot of the film closely but before you begin the first of these games you must identify your equipment. This is just a small kink Activision have put into the program. All you have to do is select the piece of equipment that corresponds with the writing below.

Game One puts you flying, or attempting to fly your drop-ship through a twisting vector pipe that leads into Archeron. This is extremely tricky, because if you career off course back you must go and start from scratch. There is a meter on the side of the screen which tells you if you are on or off course, it it's in the green, okay, if it's in the red you can kiss your butt goodbye!

Game Two and now you're in the atmosphere processor. Four of your marines are surrounded by slimy disgusting aliens and you must guide them back to the safety of the armoured personnel carrier. The game plays like an extremely basic arcade-adventure. You can control any one of the four marines at any point. You must watch their monitors to see if they are in danger of being captured by any aliens. If they are, choose which one to control and blast them out of trouble.

Game Three, now you're in deep! The aliens have you cornered and you must hold them off with your flame-thrower, giving your surviving marines enough time to blast their way through the two ton steel door! This game is a straightforward shoot-'em-up. You are on the right hand side of the screen, and scores of aliens will charge towards you from the left. To get rid of them you can either sizzle them to death, send them into hasty retreat with a touch of the flame-thrower. If an alien does get past you, he will then proceed to the door where he will capture one of your marines. When you have no marines left, you have failed this section. Not exactly breathtaking but a jolly little shoot-'em-up nevertheless.

Game Four: you are now trapped in Archeron's huge maze of air-vents, and you must find your way to the drop-ship landing field. You are given an overhead view, represented by a gold square and a blue square which is Ripley (aka the scrumptuous Sigourney Weaver). There are between one and eight dots on the squares, the dots represent grenades you have depends solely on how many marines are still alive. The object of this game is to guide yourself and Ripley through the maze, avoiding all aliens and reach the drop-ship safely. If you are caught by any aliens you can blow them up with a grenade, if you have no grenades left then... goodbye! This game makes the worst imaginable pac-man clone seem advanced. I was shocked that Activision had the nerve to put this on the disc!

It's Game Five and time for you to take the role of Ripley. There are seventeen minutes before Acheron goes up, but Ripley is determined to save Newt the child, who has been captured. You must locate her using the range detector, which will give you some idea of which way to go. Be careful though, there are aliens on the prowl, it only takes two shots to kill them but you only have ninety-nine shots.

Game Six: The final confrontation. You don a power-loader, which you must use to whack the alien queen with, the arms can be moved up, down, left and right. You must whack her until her strength is down to zero ten you must grab here, and... you're a hero!

The American attempt at Aliens is far from outstanding, in fact could be regarded as a compendium of five of the worst games around for the C64 (game three isn't too bad).

The graphics and sound are on the whole pretty dire althoughthere are some decent backdrops. These do not save the game, the only way I could possibly give it a good mark for value is if it was offered free with three Weetabix tokens. The UK version is far superior to this dross. Save your money... and rent the video.