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An evil force of monster machines has set about conquering the galaxy. One by one the peaceful races have simply acquiesced. Their only hope for freedom was a race of giant dragons inhabiting a far distant planet.

Things took a turn for the worse when the sinister cyborgs hunted down and captured the giant golden dragon. Luckily, a lone, unknown warrior in a sudden fit of conscience rose from within the ranks of the tin-pot dictators and vowed to fight back. Muffled cheers were heard from creatures hiding under tables on a thousand oppressed worlds, hailing the new hero... Saint Dragon!

The key to Saint Dragon's success (and frustration), is the amount of action it packs onto the screen. There you are flying along, having a good whistle, when suddenly a dozen rampant robots leap out and start throwing missiles. Game Over.

It's this combination of periods of bland target practice followed by intense activity that makes Saint Dragon & very uneven and, ultimately, a dissatisfying shoot-'em-up. It contains some of the toughest and most unusual end-of-level aliens found in any blaster, but it's also got waves and waves of pathetic opponents who really shouldn't have bothered turning up.

Apart from that, it's par for the course: unremarkable progressive weaponry, a few traps and some natty presentation. The graphics are very good, on the whole: the third level background is the best of an impressive bunch, and the sprite design and animation are well up to scratch, particularly on the dragon itself.

The sound complements this. An unobtrusive tune plays as a background to decent sound effects, both capturing the quality of the arcade parent. Perhaps if there were more than five levels, or more variety within those levels, Saint Dragon would be a more compelling shoot-'em-up.

Anyone who likes blasters full of surprises won't be disappointed.

For the same price at the same time, ST owners should get the same game... almost. A few minor tweaks to graphics and sound won't affect the gameplay, however.

No news is good news. So it's bad news that there is news. No MS-DOS dragon will be winging its vengeful way onto your PC in the foreseeable future.