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Once upon a time, a senile American actor who happened to get himself into a position of considerable responsibility went completely mad. After watching his favourite sci-fi movie he decided it would be possible to defend the Earth from nuclear attack by positioning a bunch of laser firing satellites in space. Needless to say, everyone but the loony himself knew it wouldn't work - except perhaps in a computer game. And, by some incredible coincidence, here it is...

The game starts with a shuttle dumping your satellite in orbit. From here on in, you're on your own. The controls are a bit odd, in that moving the joystick moves your satellite but pressing Fire while you're moving the joystick aims a crosshair. It's because of this that, at times, you can be so intent on blasting things you completely forget to release fire to move the satellite out of harm's way.

Each level consists of two stages. First you play the offensive stage where you have to destroy various satellites, rockets, missiles and other space debris. Clear all of it and you go straight to the offensive stage on level two. Miss some of it though and you have to suffer that level's defensive stage. The defensive stage is pretty much the same as the offensive one so effectively it merely doubles your workload.

Collect bonus pods and you can get your paws on extra speed, multiple crosshairs and other worthwhile trappings. It's an odd game: basic but effective graphics, basic gameplay and a control method that is anything but basic. Despite this, it's playable, it's fun (especially in two-player mode) and what's more it's dirt cheap.

It's a jolly little blast with fairly good graphics and sounds. It makes a good first impression but I can't see interest lasting.