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If man has evolved over millions ofyears, survived countless natural disasters, triumphed through its fair share of wars and created a pretty pleasant world to live in, why is it that programmers think the future is going to be crap? [Er, 'cos it makes for a good storyline - Ed].

In Robozone, the planet has become a bit smelly. Pollution is out of control and all the rich folk now live on luxury yachts in the middle of the relatively clean Pacific Ocean. That leaves the scummy commoners to choke to death on the undesirable land masses.

To protect themselves they have created the Wolverine - a large robotic refuse collector-cum-bodyguard. Old Wolfy is a bit like ED-209 of Robocop fame and, in terms of both looks and performance, he's the best thing about the game.

Not surprisingly, he is also the fellow you have to control, in a quest to find and defeat the 'Scavengers'. These robotic insectoids are scurrying around the city, making smells, dropping litter and killing people.

Your mission lasts until one of two meters goes off the scale one way or the other. There's an energy bar at the top of the screen; if it disappears, you're doomed. And there's a pollution meter which signals the end of the human race when levels get too high.

The first level takes place in the sewers. You can move right and left, jump up and down through holes in the sewer pipes and blast the dozens of insectoid and humanoid opponents who try to spoil it all for you. And beetles with human heads might sound imaginative, but the single colour 2D sprites don't exactly help generate any atmosphere. Oh, dear.

Meanwhile, you have to find your way through the maze-like sewer system (in which mapping is essential) to the end-of level floating head. Then you kill it. This level is drab, frustrating and repetitive... it ain't much cop.

The next level is much the same, only this time it's not sewers but streets you have to negotiate. Now the map is not so much a maze as a grid. The end-of-level guardian is another large head but this one gives you a garbled message when you meet it. Find the device which translates the message, return to the head and you receive instructions to find another item. Collect this, go back to the head and you finish the level. It's simple really but the streets are so long and the mission so vague that after wandering around for hours you simply lose the will to continue.

Be warned - the fickle collision detection is a menace and getting temporarily stuck behind every bit of scenery in sight leads to intermittent and annoying play.

If you can bear it, you might be surprised by the drastic change of game style on the final level. Here, the Wolverine loses his legs in exchange for a rear booster, in an attempt to pass himself off as the R-9 spaceship. Yes folks, now you're playing a poor man's R-Type. But even with such wonderful arcade inspiration this bit, like the two previous levels, is dull dull dull.

Many of you won't even get that far. Not because you're novice gamers, but because you'll get very bored very quickly. The plot is fine (who needs one anyway?) and the attempt to provide varied levels is commendable, but this skeleton of an above average shoot-'em-up has been buried beneath a mountainous pile of unplayable debris.

1. The first two levels are monotonous; too much wandering.
2. There is some annoyingly poor collision detection.
3. Only three short(ish) levels - no long-term challenge here.
4. R-Type level is a good formula, very badly implemented.
5. End-of-level guardians are just pathetic.
6. The sprites are severely two-dimensional and poorly coloured.
7. Background graphics are drab and unconvincing.
8. Sound effects are forgettable.

1. Commendable attempt at varied levels and gameplay.
2. Enemies are very original.
3. Wolverine sprite is nicely drawn and animated.