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Forget the army. The really upwardly mobile hard man of the 23rd century joins the Astro Marine Corps - what the guys "in the know" call the AMC. What distinguishes these boys from the ordinary man in the street is their total devotion to duty. That means, when they go on a timed mission to decontaminate a planet covered in Deathbringer aliens closely followed by the lair that spawns the vicious beasts themselves, they hardly even flinch.

So what if these mutants are tough, mean and unspeakably ugly? A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Well - as long as he's got his high-powered machine gun and a supply of grenades with him.

The A34 Walker is a creature of many mechanically assembled parts. That's why exterminating one is a combined question of blasting the machinery on the bottom as well as the top.

Huge monsters are liable to be hiding in the most innocent-looking places, so it pays to be cautious. Try dispatching this one with a quartet of grenades.

Moving platforms try a good marine's mettle to its limits. Mis-time a jump and you end up as monster fodder. Ruined buildings are best approached with the utmost care. A solid-looking floor isn't always as substantial as it seems.

These aliens were irritable before you ever stepped foot on the planet and throwing your weight around with a gun hasn't made them any friendlier. The further you get, the tougher they come - anything from killer worms to huge mechanical robo-machines and Yurk snakes.

Rolling hummocks aren't just for decoration - they introduce an extra element of skill. even when there isn't a man-eating plant waiting at the top, the angle of the slope affects the direction of your shots. Aliens are a tad harder to wipe out when you play king of the castle and they march up the hill.

An AMC expedition is a constant effort to maintain life-supporting energy levels and avoid draining collisions with alien life-forms. Luckily, all kinds of goodies are airlifted down to you in pod form. A quick blast with the bazooka, and it reveals anything from hardware improvements to energy, grenades or extra lives. Pick-me-ups specifically crafted for the tired astro-marine include Positron Shields, Twin Shot Lasers and Totally Effective Discharges.

AMC endows its monster-mashing with a bit of class. The main marine sprite marches in time to hypnotically mellow music, wielding his mega-bazooka against a background of pink and dusty blue sunsets scrolling by in parallax. Like Psygnosis' Beast, which this resembles graphically but can't really match for detail or variety, AMC goes for the designer look - and it actually works.

In terms of gameplay, there's nothing exceptionally special here - just an ordinary left-to-right scrolling blaster with a few bonus pickups - but what there is is well-crafted, polished and slick. Unusually for a Dinamic game, it's not impossibly difficult either - just hard enough to inspire you with a man-size desire to win.

Action freaks might find it a bit lacking in substance, especially at the hefty price, but anyone tempted by the thought of eighteen different soundtracks' worth of marine corps extermination should definitely consider joining up.

This version's been held up in training, but should be fit enough to join its big bazooka brother in a month or so. The Amiga's 32 colours and extended soundtrack won't be present, but in terms of action, there shouldn't be a hair's breadth of difference between them.

In accordance with orders from top brass, there are no plans to try ambitious PC marines out in the field. Sorry guys - keep on training.