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Out Of This World has just about everything you could possibly want from a horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up - weird alien landscapes; a bewildering array of weaponry; level upon level of non-stop bobbing, weaving and firing; and wave after wave of alien life-forms.

Yet despite all the trimmings, Out Of This World owes a lot to Fantasy Zone, a classic shoot-'em-up on the Sega Master System. You pilot a spacecraft which can fly left or right, up and down, over the scrolling scenery as assorted Things come at you from all directions. Armed with a Quark cannon and infinite ammo, you zip back and forth, firing constantly with one eye on the target and the other watching out for the next wave of nasties.

The scenery is a vivid landscape of grotesque technicolour toadstools, and the aliens a surreal assortment of animated rocks, organs, winged things and much more besides. They come at you in groups, sometimes flying in vertical waves, sometimes horizontal; sometimes they approach in large formations, sometimes they curve around you in double helixes.

Each alien you destroy drops a bouncing coloured pod, and if you swoop down and collect these (remember picking up the humanoids in Defender?) you boost the energy reserves of the various equipment icons at the foot of the screen.

There are seven icons, including multi-directional cannons of various strengths, a laser and a 'wide beam', acceleration and an extra life. Each requires different coloured pods to fuel it, and when the energy level or any one of them reaches maximum, the icon is activated. In this way your humble Quark cannon can be replaced by the awesome seven-way shotgun, which scatters bullets all over the screen, for as long as its energy lasts or until you replace it with another weapon.

Like in this Other World is, of course, frustratingly brief. Your puny cannon and meagre six lives are scarcely sufficient, and all you can do is try to find a (relatively) safe area of the screen where you can avoid most of the aliens and pick off the stragglers.

Once you start collecting pods, and gaining access to the more powerful guns, things get easier. Well, a little bit. Actually, not very much at all. Finishing the first level - The Forest - is a matter of battering the enemy into submission, and believe me, this takes a hell of a lot of shooting. When the beggars have finally had enough, a large E for Exit appears on the screen, and if you give this a quick blast with whatever's to hand, you've warped into the next level.

Except that before you reach it you've got to battle through thousands of swarming yellow pods in what is dishonestly called a Bonus Level. If you die in the middle of this you're zapped right back to the start.

Level Two, should you reach it, is more of the same. The scenery has changed, the toadstools swapped for icicles and snowmen, the aliens are faster and there are more of them. Level Three, the bubble world, lies beyond a Bonus Level even more horrible than the last one, and there are still another five worlds and five bonus levels after that.

Obviously I didn't get where I am today without using a cheat mode, and this involves using both hands on various keys and some other part of your anatomy to hold down the fire button. This can give you a few, or a lot, of lives depending on how often you press it initially, but more important, it boosts the energy levels of all the icons, so that they only need a pod or two to be activated.

Everything about Out Of This World is slick and well-oiled, and there's enough variety in the landscapes and aliens to prevent it from being tedious. But it's also very, very difficult, which might put off less lunatic zappers, and it would have been a better game without those bonus levels. Still, if your idea of fun is a blistered trigger-finger, then look no further.