Did I ever tell you how much I used to love my Spectrum? There was no end to the classic arcade adventures available for it - the stylish Sabre Wulf, the gigantic Nodes Of Yesod (no, really!) and of course the seminal Starquake. Nite Time have obviously taken their cue from the classics of yesteryear, 'cos Cavitas is one hell of an exploration and shooting fest. The basic idea is simple enough - you guide a hefty craft round mazes of caverns, populated with the inevitable array of monsters and their generators. Most areas are blocked by steel doors, which require the correct key to open. There're also computers littered around the places, and... hell, you don't really want to know any of this.
Okay, okay, so the game doesn't really match up to the old classics, but it still offers some brilliantly structured mazes, loads of power-ups and hordes of meanies to blast. It's also, to my knowledge, the first one meg only budget release. (The extra memory is used for some pretty sexy presentation effects. Between games, for instance, there're some fetching HAM screens which slide on and off.)
The game, too, uses 64 colour mode, and features a neat lighting effect. The headlights from the player's craft actually throw a beam onto the surrounding rock formations, baddies and background details.
It's all groovy stuff, and if the ship movement feels just a bit too leaden (some gravity wouldn't go amiss), and the baddies aren't really that spectacular, then I guess I can bring myself to forgive it. Go on, treat yourself.