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Swedish Nobel Prize winner Svante Arrhenius believed that the seeds of life were brought to Earth on a giant asteroid Little was he to know that the aliens would copy his idea, transporting deadly beings instead of DNA. In Biospheres you are in control of a "strong but powerful podule" which worms its way inside the asteroid to knock out the nasties, the accelerators that speed up their life cycles, the bioshields that protect them, and the biobombs that set off a chain reaction which destroys the asteroid when it reaches Earth There is also the occasional canister-like object to be shot at or picked up for bonus shield strength or extra points.

There is not much else to say about the plot, except that it is highly unoriginal and screams 'Gauntlet-clone!' very loudly at you.

The odd scenario, however, is a misleading cover for a very well programmed game. From the enormous characters that are used to flash messages on to the screen, to the fast scrolling that slows down only slightly when the nasties appear, to the various three-channel tunes and good spot effects - everything comes off beautifully.

The graphics are good, although the colours could have been netter selected - the nasties are very hard to see in green.

Control is reasonably easy, although the keyboard is slicker than the joystick. Diagonal movement, never the easiest to achieve, is very awkward with this program, and the diagonal scrolling is jerky.

Overall though, excellent stuff consolidating Silverbird's position as one of the best and most consistent budget software houses.