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It's always with some hope that I load a game from an unknown software house. I hope maybe it'll be good enough to knock one of the big boys off the top.

I am sorry to report that in this case my hopes were shattered within minutes of playing the thing. It describes itself as a shoot-'em-up arcade adventure which conjures up a cross between Entombed and Dropzone which is, I think, what it wishes it was. It's not, it's a mess.

Moebius is a space mercenary hired by rebels to stop a mind-bending alien called the Controller from dominating the galaxy. As Moebius you have to battle your way through many planets before you reach the Controller.

The game takes the pattern of you controlling a space figure and walking left or right across half a dozen screens until you reach a transporter. You're pursued by the local nasties on each planet, all of whom have fallen under the Controller's power. For some reason, these things come up and down screen and, if they touch you, you explode, but if they hit an obstacle they pop harmlessly like balloons. Must be something in the water. Every time you find the transporter, you pop off to another planet which bears an uncanny resemblance to the last one. It's just had a new lick of paint while you were materialising.

En route you pick up a jetpack and a hovercar to help you avoid the nasties. I never got as far as the latter mode of transport. I'd lost all interest and begun to wonder if maybe the headcleaner tape it came with might look more interesting if I loaded that up instead.