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It wasn't that long ago that I found myself with the Ed, down at your local arcade taking screenshots of this fabulous game. After the initial frustration of trying to focus on the over-large screen, attention was turned to what is probably the most athletic character in any game.

Strider is a superbly animated coin-op with a somersaulting character who sprints down cliffs and defies gravity with the aid of a suction cup. Inconvertible, it seemed.

Hardly hyped, hardly promoted, the conversion belies all thoughts of that. The static background graphics are identical to those of the arcade. Between level sequences have been retained; there's sampled speech and, best of all, the gameplay of Strider remains. He still pulls off more bewildering flips and turns than a cat with a hot-foot, minus some frames of animation and at the sacrifice of some speed. But it looks fabulous.

The Kremlin dragon, one of the original features, still appears to cause trouble with all the favourite members of the Politburo transmuting into a giant, communist worm which needs stamping on. Guy, the fity ton steel gorilla, waltzes on screen after that to pound Strider to a pulp with tank-sized metal fists. Level two has the land mines and snow wolves to make life a misery. On top of that is a jump so immense it takes almost overly perfect timing to negotiate.

Strider's main defence, and a mean one at that, is the huge energy field he flips around his head, the size of which can be increased by collecting various human and robot leftovers. Another very useful little implement is a collectible robot satellite which orbits Strider and fires intermittently, good for long range attacks. Life is based around an energy bar which depletes every time Strider has a brush with a nasty. Too many brushes and he's swept away another of his three lives.

The next ten minute were spent looking for the memory expansion or the elusive "second" disk. There were none. Strider is a completely self-sufficient one-disk product - but a good one at that.

It contains all the best ingredients for an excellent game. The gameplay is wonderful, there is always a hidden trap, nasty or puzzle needed to advance a section, and it's always worthwhile as none of the sections are repetitive. The game scores full marks for presentation with sequences, cartoon pictures between levels and digitised speech. If Strider sounds a little bit on the awkward side to control, don't fret. The slanted eight-way control method applies, with up for jump and fire to use the energy beam. All other actions are dictated by the terrain and position of Strider, and ease of control which helps add to the playability of the game. They're not programmed in for decoration either. A lot of stages require careful positioning and the right actions at the right time to leap on to a wall or avoid falling objects.

A must for all arcade fans, and already looks set to challenge Forgotten Worlds and Xybots for arcade conversion of the year.