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Following the dire Vixen, Martech have once again launched themselves into the Amiga market with, surprise, surprise, a progressively scrolling shoot-'em-up. I won't bore you with some pseudo science-fiction scenario: suffice it to say that you pilot a horrible wobbling spaceship across alternately horizontal and vertically scrolling landscapes, facing swarms of baddies and having to defeat an end-of-level meanie before commencing battle on the next landscape.

The progressive nature of the game sticks to the now-standard routine: defeating a set number of waves sees the appearance of a small icon bearing a letter. Repeatedly shooting the icon alters the letter, and hence the effect it has on the ship when collected. The additional weaponry includes: F for faster (speed-up); L for laser (forward-firing only, but powerful and rapid); P for plasma (multiple shots); D for double (twice the shots for the same finger-presses); S for sides (side lasers); and H for homing (missiles - speaks for itself really). These are all pretty effective in their own way - except for the homing missiles, which are fine until you reach the end-of-level meanie, at which point they stop homing and become completely useless.

Phantom Fighter also have one or two major drawbacks. First (and most importantly) it's very, very hard. And it's hard for the wrong reasons: you are frequently called upon to have superhuman reactions (play is all too often accompanied by the cry, "What hit me?!"). Aliens force you into one area of the screen and them bombard you with missiles, or they rapidly appear from the edge of the screen nearest to your ship, giving zero chance of avoiding them.

Secondly, there isn't enough variety. OK, the screen scrolls vertically and horizontally but the backgrounds are pretty much static and the attack waves are hardly the most unusual or innovative. Also, the end-of-level meanies are your average spinning, missile-gobbing end-of-level meanies. No surprises there.

Finally, each level is loaded in separately - and takes thirty seconds. Doesn't sound like much, does it? OK, play your favourite shoot-'em-up. Wait half-a-minute between levels and see how long it takes before you start fidgeting.

That's about it really - if you want an average, frustrating shoot-'em-up, then look no further. But then, you don't really want that, do you?