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By the year 3987, the Galactic Imperium was mightier than ever. One by one, it had swallowed up all solar systems and alien races... Except for a small defiant planet... Octapolis'.

Now, where have you read that before? Yep. On the cassette inlay for practically every space shoot-out that you've ever played.

What happens on-screen in Octapolis is every bit as original as the hackneyed prose of its packaging. There are few surprises in its fusion of horizontally-scrolling space dogfight with static platform sequences. Yet the whole thing has been so well presented that you're apt to overlook the fact that you've been playing games like this ever since your fists were big enough to hold a joystick.

Play begins with split-screen aerial combat across the surface of planet Octapolis. The lower half of the screen displays your craft flying over the by now very familiar bird's eye view of futuristic city architecture (pipes, ducts, conduits, flanges, grids...) while the top half shows the same scene but from sideways on. Both views scroll to left and right, depending on the direction of your fast-moving craft, and there's some fine parallax scrolling too, especially where you can look through gaps in the superstructure to the levels below.

All very flash indeed, and very confusing at first, as your eyes try to take in simultaneously the two viewpoints. But you'll probably end up watching one view only - usually the top - and only glancing at the other occasionally. It's easier letting the enemy craft line themselves up in your sights, than trying to chase them around the three dimensions.

After several minutes of feverish zapping, your ship will start to flash accompanied by appropriate sound effects. It's time now to bring the craft down on the landing strip, and enter the planet's interior.

It's at this point that graphic pyrotechnics are abandoned in favour of what is a polished but nevertheless unexceptional platform format. Static screens, full of little ledges occupied by wobbling eyeballs and waddling stocky aliens. You're now controlling a midget spaceperson, and ahead lie five chambers of prancing and leaping until you reach the next city and the next shoot-out.

You can shoot at the eyeballs, but the other lifeforms seem to be invulnerable, so a fair amount of acrobatics are called for in order to reach the exit sign on the opposite side of each screen. Some people apparently enjoy this type of thing.

When you reach the next city, the whole thing starts over again, and it won't surprise you that each shoot-out, and each series of platform screens increase in difficulty.

That's the game in a nutshell, though there are some pleasing refinements as you go along. If you think the dogfight sequences are too short, then don't dock immediately you're told to. You can go on fighting for as long as your five lives will allow you - in fact, it's easier to notch up a high score in this sequence than it is in the platform chambers.

Most of the game's appeal lies in its presentation, with its crisp, colourful graphics, fast and fluid movement, and neat sounds effects. But whether you think that instant-reflex, joystick-bashing space warfare works well with the slower, more precise skills required by the hop, skip and jump sequences will depend on how much you enjoy either type of game.

For me there's no contest - I'd rather have a super-smooth shoot-'em-up than a poxy platform frolic any day of the week. But I've tried not to let my prejudice influence the ratings below.