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Hands up everyone who knows that LED stands for. That's right, Lazer Enhanced Destruction. So why is Capcom's new release so named? Is it because your stealthy space cruiser is armed to the hilt with lazer weapons of every description known in the galaxy? Nope. Is it perhaps because an alien armada is at this very minute headed toward the Earth, poised to wreak lazer-enhanced destruction on the cities of the world? Wrong again. Possibly your futuristic high powered car is fitted with lazer powered turbos to give you incredible acceleration? Bingo! Of course, obvious really when you think about it, that the title has nothing whatever to do with the game.

LED Storm is a vertically-scrolling race game. The object is to complete each of the nine stages before running out of fuel, being smashed to pieces by the other competitors and numerous obstacles, or disappearing down a hole, never to be seen again. Each of the stages has its own little surprises though, basically they consist of motorway-like stretches of road dotted about with ramps, holes, people, fuel dumps, juggernauts and so on. It's a bit like the M25 on a good day.

By hitting a ramp, you can soar above the mayhem going on down below and avoid the really big holes that seem to go on for miles. Fall in to one of these and your only hope is rescue by a huge transporter thing (but it is mighty slow progress). Another way of avoiding damage to your beautiful bodywork is to pick up invincibility tablets which occasionally float across the road. These tabs, consumed by driving over them, provide your motor with a yellow forcefield, enabling you to smash into anything with complete impunity. You have to watch out though, as they have a tendency to give out just when you're lined up for a fifteen vehicle pile-up.

If this does happen, all is not lost. You can replace energy lost in such 'accidents' by picking up the E tablets that occasionally float past. The only problem with these tablets is that they have an annoying tendency to float right off the side of the carriageway - and in your overzealous efforts to capture them, you can end up doing more damage than you set out to prevent.

Landscape changes for the nine stages are more than just cosmetic, with plenty of new features introduced such as the coral monsters in stage three and the dinosaur remains in stage 5. All the same, this is little more than the old vertical scrolling buggy race with some nice scenery. Oh, and some great music to liven things up a bit.

There's even less to recommend the Amiga version. The horizontal scrolling is jerky whilst the extra graphic capabilities are scarcely used. This highlights the game's inadequacies still further. LED Storm is a weak coin-op and the home conversions ultimately reflect this.