Guardian is a bit of a unique entity on the Amiga, and best explained as being a first-person-perspective Defender clone, with a fair few touches of the SNES game, Starwing, thrown in for good measure. Rather than stealing humanoids though, these baddies are into mass destruction, ramming into buildings and landmarks; and what with you being a Guardian, it's (rather unsurprisingly) down to you to stop these gits before they demolish absolutely everything.

The most impressive thing about Guardian is its speed. Whistling along in polygon heaven, this has to be one of the most satisfying craft ever just to scoot around in. The original was controlled with the D32 joypad, and though there is an option to use such a pad with this A1200 version, the standard control comes by way of mouse and keyboard combined. Now this can be great, but it can also be hell...

Sitting here at my desk, things aren't too bad at all. The mouse allows me to swoop and flow about the landscape in an almost sexual way, with the left and right mouse buttons thrusting and reversing respectively. My left hand lies on the Amiga keyboard, with fire, flip, missile launch, and smart bomb ail easily accessed. Ah, but what if I was sitting at home...?

Well, that's where things would all go horribly wrong. The reason? Well, I (and most of the people I know) traditionally have their computers on the floor, which means that unless any keyboard-using games are nice and simple, things can get a bit awkward, not to mention painful.

Fortunately, other than this control quibble and the reduced musical effects, Guardian remains true to its original CD32 release. The only solid criticism I have against the game, is that it tends to be a bit repetitive, throwing much the same level at you time and time again, before allowing you onto a new scenario - only to do much the same again.

Still, this is an excellent arcade game, and does the Amiga proud! Good stuff indeed, and well worth a gander.