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Do you sometimes feel your fate is in the hands of the Gods? Well, here's your chance to turn the tables and make your bid for immortality, and I reckon this is just about the best game so far on the Oric.

You are Loki, the Norse Gods' very own black sheep. And you're out for revenge after the other immortals have imprisoned you for thousands of years. Despite the lengthy tour of Norse mythology provided on the inlay the game has little to link it to legend.

The instructions in the program are as brief as those on the cassette liner are lengthy. Certain vital bits of information, such as where you are on the screen, are omitted, and the 'up' and 'down' controls are actually redundant for the first three stages. I wasted a good deal of time trying to jump over things.

You can play with a joystick or from the keyboard. Not having a joystick to hand I found the keys fairly well-placed and comfortable: Y/U for left/right, K/M for up/down.

You start at ground level, moving very quickly and trying to kill everything that comes at you. The landscape is a striking orange crossed by numerous geometric valleys. The various God-like foes appear grouped on the horizon.

Having escaped from the Earth you arrive in space. And here the fun really begins. With four directions of travel now available you can pitch and wheel among the stars at will. At this level it's difficult to hit anything, and it's even more difficult to tell when you have.

The whole game is accompanied by an impressive soundtrack; the space stages are particularly good, with the threat of impending motion sickness being heightened by what can only be described as a drunken astronaut's hornpipe.

But my Godly prowess wasn't enough to get me through the black hole to explore the final stages of the game. No doubt they're just as exciting as the rest.

This game is of a remarkably high standard, especially given the limitations of the Oric. I'd be hard pressed to think of any arcade game that combines the use of graphics and sound to better effect, so if you own an Oric you need this game. All credit to Joe the Lion.