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Computer games and comics have a lot in common when you stop to think about it. Stylised graphics, simple story line, action abounding and not too many complications.

The first comic-computer crossover that I can remember was Superman for the Intellivision games console and that was about six years ago. Plus a change - this time it's a superhero from this side of the Big Pond who's saving the world on your Arnold.

In this week's issue: The Mekon has set an asteroid hurtling towards the Earth and will only stop it if the people of Earth hand over power to him. Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, goes into space to blow up the asteroid and thwart the Evil One's despicable plans.

Can Dan do it? What will happen to Digby, his sidekick? Will all the Mekon take over be an obscure magazine? Read on, read on.

Once Dan gets to Schloss Mekon he's pretty much on his own against the hoards of Treens the blighter Mekon's henchmen. True, Dan, Professor Peabody and Digby do get a lift to the asteroid that the Mekon is using to threaten earth. However, the Prof takes Dan's rocket out of harm's way, and Digby gets captured by the Treens almost from the word go. Dan is thus all alone in a big bad asteriod.

Fortunately his trusty laser gun is to hand and into battle he goes. The Treens are floating aliens who attempt to either shoot or capture our hero and he also comes under fire from various automatic gun emplacements that encrust the innards of the planetlet. Once Dan has been hit a few times he becomes unconscious and is transported to a jail set deep below the surface. The same fate awaits him should he slip while jumping over the shafts sprinkled about the place.

The jail itself presents no problem as the lock's broken (Hurrah!), but Dan loses vital time in finding his way back to where he was via the Mekon's elevator system.

To get to the detonator mechanism he has to cross a chasm. There are four bridging pieces to be placed, then Dan can release Digby and activate the detonator. Then he must flee like the clappers to the Mekon's spaceship to make good his escape.

Will he do it? Only you know, as you guide a behatted Dan through the cavernous interior of the Mekon's tool of devastation. Marvel at the detailed walls. Thrill to the zap of zarjaz (sorry, wrong comic) lasers. Gasp at Dan's death defying bounds. Cringe as he crouches from the naughty Treens.

His exploits are detailed in a faithfully rendered comic-book script which appears from time to time on the bottom of the Mode 1 screen. Likewise the imminent demise of the Earth is chronicled by a graphic globe slowly going green. Once the grot reaches Antarctica, Dan's heroism has been in vain. Everything is joystick-based and some delicacy is called for at times. There's a lot of carefully-instilled atmosphere in this game, and not a lot to complain about. But I always thought Dan Dare was Sloanespeak for "on the floor"...

Dan Dare is another classic from Virgin. The play is the run, jump duck and fire type where the obstacles are gaps and robots. The automated defences attempt to either shoot Dan or swoop down and cart him off to clink. I can't quite work out why there is no door on the jail.

The graphics are excellent, depicting sombre high-tech girders and rails rather than Sorcery's sombre rustic walls and bars - perhaps this has something to do with Virgin's working enviponment.

Play is definitely trickier than in Sorcery, where you have to be pixel accurate and get your timing to the nanosecond. Some individual screens require mastering but there is always a way round - if you can only find it.

Well worth a look for fans of this type of game.

There are some games which seem to work and others which don't. Just when everyone thought that 3D games were passe, Ocean breathed new life into them with Batman.

And Dan Dare proves that programs which used to be called ladders and platform games and are now known as arcade adventures still have life in them.

Dan Dare is addictive, the puzzles are clever, there are plenty of aliens to shoot and the place is huge. If saving the world is the bag you are into then this is the game to buy.

I suppose that a comic base allows almost any scenario to be dragged out, dusted off and presented as a novel concept.

It's a shame that Virgin have chosen a bog-standard platform game for Dan Dare's first ram-based romp.

They've gone to town on the artwork, with intricate threedeeish walls, floors and lifts and there are sufficient nasties to keep sitting-room superheroes busy.

The joystick control is very pernickety and it's very easy to step forwards while trying to fire upwards and then plummet to captivity.

It's OK, but nothing to queue up for.