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Canyon is an exciting game of skill, cool judgement and quick reactions; well, that's what the eight-page instruction manual (!) tells you. Unfortunately, I found what is otherwise a good concept a bit on the monotonous side.

The idea of the game is to fly a balance from Asdel, which is at the top of one canyon, to Xar which is at the end of the twenty-fourth! Each canyon is longer and narrower than the previous one, and the islands that populate the stretches of water become more frequent and difficult to avoid.

As you sweep down towards Xar, the warring fleets of her Electronic Highness the Robot Emperor of Xar pounce. Beamers are stationed from the second canyon, which fire sideways and can send you into an uncontrollable spin. Other Zarian nasties include fighter bombers, missile boats, mines, gates of fire and the ultimate deterrent, the imperial Flagship. If you get shot or crash due to reckless flying, your Asdelian reincarnation allows you to attempt a second or third rescue mission.

Like many games these days, the more controls the better, and Canyon responds to ten keys in all. The graphics are reasonable, with downwards scrolling effectively used, though the canyons are not particularly realistic. The sound effects are good and one neat feature is an autoplay which switches itself on if no key is pressed within half a minute. The Beeb then plays itself, though it does seem to cheat!

And scoring is not what it used to be. I managed to get a high score of just 65. This is because you get points deducted if you get beamed or shoot down a balloon.

A bit run of the mill, but compulsive once you start playing.