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Any arcade conversion is something to look forward to, and since Galvan was recommended to me I was expecting great things. Unfortunately, either I have completely different game tastes, or this one is nothing like the arcade.

The plot is simple and somewhat insane. Galvan is the sole surviving member of the Cosmo police and his job is to eliminate just about anything that moves in an underground labyrinth below the planet Cyrep. Sounds like cosmic genocide but I suppose they deserve it!

On loading I was presented with a nice title screen accompanied by music. The music was very familiar, and I soon remembered that it was the same as Parallax, Nomad and many other Ocean games. Please Mr. Galway, can't we have a new piece of loading music for each game?

When loaded I couldn't believe my eyes. The screen was showing the various credits for the game, and it looked horrible. Just as if I had typed them in "print" statements. If you don't understand what I mean then check it out for yourself. You soon will.

As if this wasn't enough, the music was terrible. This is too much. It couldn't get worse. Surely not.

I was wrong. My man fell to the bottom of the screen, and I began to get attacked by various things. I say things, because although the basic shape of these strangers was human, the heads were square, the arms consisted of huge blocks and the legs were like matches.

Having recovered from the beating, I trekked further into the complex of walls, stairways and bits of machinery, until I trod on a flashing 'P'. I changed instantly from a mere weakling dressed in blue and red to a knight, in shining armour and all that. Now let them guys hassle me.

Upon pressing the Fire button, I unleashed a string of lasers which sent the enemy to an early grave. I was beginning to enjoy this. Then, as luck would have it, I was thrown by a very sneaky flying eyeball and as I hit the floor I lost my armour.

Now that I was defenceless, the big brave baddies trampled me. One life gone.

I found another 'P', changed, and found another one. On collecting this, my lasers changed from simple dots to banana-shaped missiles which seemed to be more powerful. This is more like it. It's necessary to keep collecting those P symbols to recharge laser energy.

The screen changed to a greeny colour and as I quickly collected two more 'P's I was confronted by a huge dragon-like creature, with three heads.

The creature started to blast me, so I returned his fire with my super-powered laser. He started to glow, and then, one of his heads vanished, leaving two remaining. My energy was running out fast, and he still had two heads, each spitting lasers with deadly accuracy.

With all my strength I blasted, he was down to one head now and started to back away, knowing I was going to win. Suddenly he vanished, I had won.

A door leading to the next level opened and I gathered up strength and charged through, ready to face a new challenge.

But then. Oh no! This level was similar to the first one, with barely any graphical difference. Is this going to be as simple as the first one?

It sure was, and after killing the dragon on this level, the game went right back to the beginning. I didn't believe it, nine quid for two screens of easy blasting is a disgrace.

It seems Ocean have forgotten the standards we C64 owners expect nowadays. This is a very poor effort that makes little or no attempt to cover up for the fact. A blatant rip-off.