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It's 2390 and disaster has struck an five-strong fleet of Space Freighters transporting an army of Battle Droids across the Galaxy. While navigating an uncharted asteroid field, the robots on board each ship have gone haywire and wiped out most of the human crews. Now, with the only survivors of the attack trapped, the ships are drifting off course and straight into enemy space!

The only way that any remaining crew members can be rescued and the fleet saved from alien oblivion is to wipe out the rogue robots still patrolling the ships and turn the fleet around. Taking command of a revolutionary new robot known as the Influence Device, it's your job to clear the decks of psychotic droids and make space a safe place once more.

And so the scene is set for Paradroid 90, the enhanced 16-bit version of Andrew Braybrook's five-year-old Commodore 64 classic. The graphics, sound and gameplay may all have been enhanced, but the basic theme remains the same - kill everything, clear all the ships, and above all, survive!

In bringing Paradroid to the Amiga, Graftgold has faithfully recreated the one element that made the original the classic it is today - the nerve-shatteringly tense gameplay. While the playfield now only scrolls vertically as opposed to all eight directions, the feeling of claustrophobia is ever-present. Is a feeling further enhanced by excellent spot effects. Alarms hum in the background, the droids have unique sound signatures, and there's even a dull revving sound in the engine room! Paradroid 90 is a visual treat, too, with its shiny metallic walls and doors creating a futuristic feel.

Paradroid 90 is as much a tactical experience as it is an arcade game, and trigger-happy blasters are going to find themselves in trouble if they don't apply some brainpower. That said, even the most experienced tacticians are as good as dead if they can't hold their own in a firefight! It's this near-perfect balance between action and strategy coupled with the believable intelligence of the droids that makes Paradroid 90 so captivating. And with five increasingly dangerous ships to complete you should be under its influence for quite some time.

Apart from a few minor differences in the colour and sound departments, Atari Paradroid 90 is identical to its Amiga counterpart. The price and release date are the same too - £24.99 and September.

There's nothing on the IBM front as yet, but providing the 16-bits go great guns there's a good chance of something appearing early next year. Keep 'em peeled.