Vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-ups have gained a bad reputation since the Shoot-'Em-Up Construction Kit enabled everyone and their dog could write them... badly, I reckon, though, that there's still life in good old-fashioned, no-nonsense blasters - but will this double-pack from the currently hyperactive Psytronik software provide the resuscitation the genre needs?

Both of them, it has to be admitted, start out looking very much like your bog-standard SEUCK game, and the graphics are functional at best. But things do improve as almost imperceptibly the gameplay begins to sink its teeth in.

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Cops 3 is subtitled Cops, Robbers And Dinosaurs. Quite why, I'm not sure, because, to be honest, I didn't get through the whole game (I've got a magazine to edit here, okay, and my Action Replay failed me) and there weren't any dinosaurs as far as I managed to get. Then again, maybe I'm just being an incredibly naive old fogey and dinosaur is some new-fangled lingo for some illegal goings-on or other. Or perhaps they're just hoping that, after Jurassic Park, we'll buy anything with dinosaurs in it.

Anyway, what we have here is another vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up, this time set in some huge Metropolis in the future in which crime is running riot over the Christmas holiday period. You know the sort of thing, shops selling ten Christmas cards for a fiver, Cilla Black Boxing Day specials on TV, pubs not opening in the evening - criminal. Oh yeah, and there are loads of gangsters running riot, robbing, shooting and generally acting like gangsters. So you (and your partner if you can find a mate who wants to join in) have been assigned to clean up the city - virtually single- (or double-) handedly it seems.

Actually, the game doesn't vertically scroll at first. Instead, you have to eliminate all the crims on screen before you're allowed to walk up the screen and into the next section. But after a while you enter familiar vertically-scrolling territory (in a sudden change of scenery that takes you out of the city and into some military barracks which look exactly like the ones in Arnie 2).

There are no pick-ups which is disappointing, but to its credit, the game does try, often quite successfully, to disguise its vertically-scrolling roots by limiting the play area to certain rooms or using things like lifts to give the game a more three-dimensional feel. One odd aspect of the game is that, if you fail to kill a baddie and he wanders off screen, bullets continue being fired from the bit of the screen where he walked, and there's nothing you can do to stop him. It can be annoying if you let it happen, but that's the point - you shouldn't let it happen.

Problems? It'd be nice to be able to change your weapon every now, there are a few annoying graphical glitches and the backgrounds are hardly artistic masterpieces (unless there's been a recent revolution in modern art criticism I haven't heard about).

Okay, let's be honest, Cops isn't much cop. It's fun for a while, and tries hard to keep the interest level high with rapid and numerous scene changes, but the gameplay is more limited than Morrisey's vocal range.

1. Good, old fashioned shoot-'em-up action.
2. Tries to break out of the continuous vertically-scrolling trap.
3. Some really quite horrible graphics.
4. Needs more variety to the gameplay.

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Archetype is the better of the two games, though there's not much in it. Archetype is a sword and sorcery romp in which the plot is so minimal the instructions settle for, "your goal is unclear". Basically, you play the knife-throwing hero who trudges through a fantasy landscape throwing knives at anything that moves. There are hostages to rescue as well but you don't have to worry about killing them because they seem indestructible.

The game follows the standard shoot-'em-up format. You wander up the screen killing hordes of knife-fodder nasties with one or two carefully placed knives (where does he keep them?) and running up against the odd monster who might take a few more stabs before deciding there must be an easier way to get lunch. Finally you grind to a halt and face some end-of-level guardians who are wearing the latest in M&S mystical knife resistant armour. There are also a few pick-ups in the form of potions that make your life easier by giving you invincibility or destroying all the baddies on screen.

Okay, so in the originality league stakes it's battling with the scriptwriters on Noel's House Party to avoid relegation to the Vauxhall Conference but it's still a decent enough slice of gaming action: the animation of the knife-throwing is simple but much more interesting than dull old bullets or lasers; you can walk beneath trees and become hidden by the foilage; enemies leap out from behind rocks and tree trunks; the scenery changes are often pretty drastic; a mysterious woman appears who gives you a few hints about what the blimmin' 'eck your purpose in life is supposed to be. In other words, there's enough going on to keep the gameplay from becoming stale.

But it's not all good news; while the intention seems to have been to write a shoot-'em-up with a bit more meat to it than your average blaster, there seems to have been a lack of attention when it comes to the actual mechanics of the program. There's no denying that it's been a bit shabbily programmed; for example, the scrolling is slow and often jerky, the extra life you're supposed to get with every 10,000 points doesn't seem to materialise and enemies occasionally vanish off screen before you shoot them. And occasionally the graphics are so lame they look like rejected entries from a Blue Peter design-a-set-of-crap-monster-sprites competition (under fives section), such as the monsters on the second level, which are little more than badly-drawn, disembodied green heads.

And the baddies are a predictable bunch. This is one of those games which you learn your way through. You know what I mean - you get to know that after you've dealt with the two baddies who leap out of the second tree on the left a dragon will appear from the right, followed by an attack of Japanese tourists and a new series of Paul Daniels on BBC1. So often getting through a section is more a test of memory than responding instinctively to an attack.

So, does the good outweigh the bad? As we all know, at the end of every fantasy good defeats bad, light beats back the dark, and truth, justice and the American Way are upheld. In this case, however, the bout goes the full 15 rounds and good wins on a controversial judge's decision (me being the judge). Personally, I reckon that for all its faults Archetype has enough playability to pull it through. It's nowhere near as good as Arnie but it's a darned sight more enjoyable than mindless pap like Mercs. Sure, it's derivative, a touch slow and a bit shaky, but it's got humour and a distinct character which help lift it above the average shoot-'em-up. If you want technical perfection and the great graphics, this isn't going to be up your street. But if you like a straightforward, good, old-fashioned blast it delivers the goods, slightly battered, but still in fully working condition.

1. Levels that remain refreshingly playable.
2. It's not Mercs.
3. All that knife-throwing looks impressive.
4. There's nothing startlingly original in it.
5. It's a bit slow and jerky, frankly.
6. And some of the graphics are shameful.

1. Both games are decent enough entertainment to make 4 a definite bargain price.
2. But they're both a bit on the ropey side and could do with tidying up.