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The last Mirrorsoft game I was fortunate enough to look at was Defender Of The Crown. I would be very surprised if Mirrorsoft could possibly make this game as graphically beautiful and compelling as their brilliant Cinemaware conversion for the C64, but who knows?

Eddie Kidd became a model. Street Hawk look his last commercial break. Why? Because this, my gasoline-guzzling friends is the 23rd Century, life is not lived outside of the home, people have learnt the brilliant, if rather unsociable art of molecular transportation, roads are now barren and unused.

This idealistically perfect society suits all but a group of rebels, this group have offered the grand prize of the ultimate motor-bike, the Mean Streak. To earn this majestic prize, you must travel along all five levels of the infamous Battletrack, a ring road which is the perimeter of the capital city (Once the M25!) and return alive. Easy? No way, not with an evil bunch of suckers like the Outcasts who ride the Battletrack and kill anyone who dare to set tyre upon it. So dare you accept the challenge. You do? Well then, mount your bike and go!

The game scrolls diagonally across the screen and is seen from raised view. Your Mean Streak cycle has the ability to speed up, and slow down [Wow! - Ed]. It can also fire rockets and shoot bullets, or slime a bit of oil in the path of anyone who dare approach it from behind. The enemy Outcasts are also on motorbikes almost identical to yours in every way, but for the ability to fire rockets. Oh, and their bikes don't have the stunning chrome paint job either! Shooting up the outcasts isn't the only problem you're going to have either, not by a long way.

There is obviously a crazy in the 23rd Century that tells fashion-conscious people that the trendiest thing anyone can do is throw litter on the Battletrack (either that or my family has been for a picnic along that way) because there is an amazingly large amount of debris littered along the floor which will damage your tyres, causing a blow out and a loss of one of your five lives. A tyre blow out, is just one of the many ways a rebel with a ridiculous cause can expect to meet his death. He could also run out of time, fuel, oil or maybe he could get shot once too often!

Don't burst into tears on me now though; there are ways of cushioning these blows. You can pick up an extra oil, fuel and rockets. You are also awarded extra time for every outcast you shoot.

Graphically speaking, Mean Streak is rather nice actually, with silky smooth scrolling (a rare and precious thing these days!) and some very attractive sprites. Sound is also well done, and with the competition which gives you the chance to win a mountain bike (v. Trendy bikes with large handlebars and matching price tags) for the one who completes it first, why am I not raving about it, you may wonder? Well, it is enjoyable but only for a fairly short time. It hasn't got that addictive punch that an arcade game needs and neither has it the complexity needed for an arcade adventure, so it's left there oscillating with an ego crisis. But if you're fairly well off and in need of a rather short-lived bit of fun, go on be a devil. Oh, and er... Mirrorsoft I'll gladly give you a screenstar... if you'll send me a mountain bike.