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Canyon is all about flying through a prescribed maze and shooting down as much as you can on the way.

Survival is the principle aim but it's the points that really matter. Encountered on your way are beamers, aircraft, missile boats, mines, gates of fire, and, when you're an expert, the imperial flagship.

You can use keyboard or joystick. You start about two thirds of the way up the screen, flying down. The canyon narrows, and islands start appearing in the middle. So your first problem is simply to avoid these.

The very first problem encountered is choosing your levels. You can vary the width of the canyon, the quantity of the enemy, and your speed from one to four, so you get 64 possible levels.

After you've started flying your suddenly come across the defending natives. First off you get simple bombers. To score, you must get two out of three that you pass. But after the first, and relatively simple section, you're liable to get a hit from the side if you don't knock them out. This puts you in a spin, out of control, and doomed unless you pull out in time, so watch out!

As you pass each section, the obstacles grow increasingly difficult and enemy get harder to fight.

The longer you stay alive the better, as each change from day to night, or from night to day, brings you another biplane. If you get shot down, or crash, you start from the beginning of the current section.

The canyons get ever narrower, and even the process of flying becomes exceptionally difficult, let along the chances of staying alive for very long against the massive defences. I've now reached level 24, but have yet to beat the final challenge.

I was impressed from the start, since the rather large packet wasn't just filled with hot air. The instructions are clear and well written, and the game gives the user a chance to skip through these on the screen.

Apart from the fact that character, rather than pixel scrolling has been used, the game is excellent. The use of colour and sound is consistently good, and the game is responsive and entertaining. I found it as enjoyable as the purely machine code written Defender. In fact I prefer this, as it allows you to steadily improve. Highly recommended.