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Comparison between Highway Encounter and the two Ultimate games (Night Lore and Alien 8) is inevitable. They all have in common amazing 3D graphics with the ability for the character that you control to shift the scenery around in order to complete the task in hand. Although I might claim to be the world's greatest Ultimate fan I am moved to say that this Vortex program actually manages to surpass both of these.

Unlike the large maze of rooms in the other games, Highway Encounter consists of a single road along which one must attempt to take the detonation device that will put paid to the enemy, along with as many of your pals as will be needed along the way. Your travels start in zone 30 and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get at least one of your men and said device to the middle square in zone 0.

One departure from the Ultimate themes is the addition of fire power - this is very satisfying for a hackneyed old blast fan. Three shots are allowed before the short delay while your laser is recharged, so it's not just as easy as continuous blasting a la Defender). Not only can the fire power be used for despatching the foe, but also to rearrange the scenery.

One of the first screens encountered has a line of barrels right across the road, so the first task is to blast a couple off to one side to allow the currently active Vorton (that's you) through. It's a good idea at this point to leave your other four lives and the Lasertron trapped on this screen while you continue up ahead to clear a path and kill all the nasties who would just love to return the favour (to you or one of your metal mates). The heathen masses come in five fruity flavours. Manic pawns shift about like there were no tomorrow but tend to stick to straight lines till they bump into something. Triffid like eyes on stalks that lazily meander about but are just as likely to catch you off guard.

On several screens, there are spikey balls that keep to fixed paths either horizontally or diagonally across the road - barrels and blocks from either their screen or a previous one must be moved into place to trap them up against the edge of the road in order to leave the central path free as it is the only line that the Lasertron can move along. Probably the best form, for latent Dave Allen fans, are the wide mouth frogs that come straight for you and finally, the extra-terrestrial flying saucers that cast convincing shadows and are by far the most ferocious of the lot.

As well as the barrels that litter the highway, there are blocks that disintegrate when hit (usually allowing the escape of some of those fixed path baddies). You'll also find the solid blocks that cannot easily be moved by pushing (unlike the barrels), but which must be shot to move only a small distance. Glass blocks are totally immobile and just serve to hassle you when you're trying to swing round to catch that flying saucer that has just passed you and is on his way back to easily pick off one of the gang. Squares on the grid like surface of the road that have a textured surface will not allow the Vorton to progress, but will only too easily let one of the more ephemeral baddies by.

There are also flickering flames that inevitably mean instant death. On one particular screen, there is a gap between two of these that is only one Vorton wide, so it's a good idea to get past this one with at least one spare life (because the spare men automatically push the Lasertron up the middle until their path is hindered, unless your active man is more than a couple of screens in front).

While trying to solve the intriguing puzzles faced in making a safe path through a screen, you can take a moment to wonder at the detail of the scenery on either side of the road (fields of various veg., trees, water that the road bridges, etc.. etc.). As well as the current chunk of highway, the screen also contains details of which zone you are in, which of your five lives are still going concerns, whether the

Lasertron is on the move, the number of shots ready for firing, current score, high score and most infuriatingly, time.

The time limit is just enough to get from zone 30 to zone 0, but if you have to spend a little extra in one or two of the screens along the way (shifting barrels, blocking spikes or just plain despatching the alien hordes) then you can be pretty certain that the clock will beat you before the opposition do. To date, my best performance has been to reach zone 2 and this certainly wasn't through lack of practice, though I know it can be done as someone else in our office can testify.