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Okay, there's not much room left, so I'll get straight to the point. Well, in fact I've got six points, one for each disk the game comes on (plus one more). First up, you might be surprised to note that, despite coming on five disks, Space Ace II only really gives you about four sequences of action, which are then subdivided into the tiny little blow-by-blow segments or 'scenes' which you actually play. This, coupled with the tendency of the animations and samples to be cut off abruptly, gives the game a very bitty feel.

Secondly, it's lazy. The same death sequences are used repeatedly, even in very different scenarios. Since half the fun of the coin-op was seeing all the amusing ways in which Ace could bite the dust, this is a great shame, and it limits the game's lasting appeal even further - youo can't even go around just dying in different ways for laughs like you could in the arcade.

Thirdly, it took me about an hour of solid playing to get through about 70 percent of the 27 'scenes', and that without trying very hard.

Fourthly, having the manual explain to you practically move by move what you have to do to get through each part robs you of the sense of reward you'd at least get if you worked it all out yourself.

Fifthly, it's been said before, but it really is ridiculous for a game of this size and unwieldiness not be hard-drive installable. If you've only got one disk drive, you'll spend twice as much time disk-swapping as you will actually playing the game, and that ratio gets worse rather than better as you progress.

And sixthly, it's another obvious gripe, but the price of £34.99 is a disgrace. It isn't because of the number of disks (US Gold's Godfather comes on six, and it isn't this expensive), it can't be because of development costs (after Dragon's Lair and the previous Space Ace, the game was already licensed and largely written), and it certainly isn't because of any lush packaging - all you get is a big box full of air, a slim instruction manual (here, surely, is a game that would have stood a nice story-setting novella or something), and a 'free' poster that's so crap it's more of an insult than a bonus!

Still, the graphics are nice. Wow.

Disjointed, ridiculously small, gameplay-free, stupendously overpriced, immensely frustrating, I could go on all day. There isn't anyone alive who's got so much money that they can afford to waste £34.99 on complete trash like this.