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Dan's back and he's meaner than ever in is latest epic struggle with the Mekon.

Look out folks! Dan Dare is back, and this time he's meaner and sorer than ever before as he loads up for another round of mutant zapping and Mekon mashing.

Here's the story so far - The evil Mekon has kidnapped our hero and whisked him away to a scientific satelite high above Venus to carry out horrifying "Treenisation” experiments on him. Ouch!

But, and it's a big but, just as the surgeons' knives are poised for the dramatic snip, Dan stages a dramatic escape out into the vaults of the satellite.

Once on the loose, the first thing he finds is a discarded jet-pack, very handy. Then, at the end of a dark corridor, he discovers a powerful starship which will take him home. Now hang on a second, this all sounds just a little too easy, you might think; and so it is. There isn't enough fuel to take dashing Colonel Dare back to Earth and this is where you take over. Get the picture? Good.

Hidden on each of the five levels of the satellite is a fuel drum which you need to find to get Dan home, but between you and them is a veritable army of mutants just waiting to gun you down, so beware, you have been warned.

Without much further ado, it is pretty safe to say that the game will be a success, following in the footsteps of its predecessors and, despite my fears, it more than lived up to the outlandish storyline.

You start off on your quest with just a plasma rifle, and although there is no fuel for the spaceship to reward you for your efforts on the first stage, there is the chance to hack into the nasty Mekon's nifty computer and stock up with an extra life - if you had the misfortune to lose one - and some meatier fire power - smart bombs are always fun things to have.

At the end of each stage, and usually guarding the fuel, is the Mekon himself. Oh yes, you don't get away with it that easily. He takes some shooting, but once gone, he will throw out the telepod key you need to get Dan to the next level before returning to his regeneration unit ready to meet you further on.

Now, if you thought the mutants were bad enough, try teleporting to the next stage without losing a life for the first few games. It's certainly no joyride.

As you wend your way through the vaults, the screen scrolls smoothly and clearly towards you, and the sound effects are pretty realistic too. You certainly feel it when a mutant plasma bolt catches you in the chest. One of the nicer tricks in the game is your three level plasma rifle, which can increase in power the longer you hold down the fire button.

So, you can nuke them, bounce bombs at them or shoot them in three different ways. I don't care how you do it; but if Dan's going out of his way to provide this much entertainment for us, the least we can do is those mutants and help him escape.