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Keen to acquire some ST owner's easily earned Crimble dosh, the software houses spent the latter half year whipping their programmers into a frenzy with Pro-Plus and incentive pay packets. Latest in the spate of arcade licences is this Domark conversion of the wickedly fast and frantic Tengen game.

STUN Runner is a futuristic racing game. You control a STUN ship (hence, no doubt the title) which you race down a series of twisting tunnels and race tracks. Other STUN runners are intent on stopping you from reaching your ultimate goal - the 24th level.

You control the ship entirely by using the joystick. Your speed varies according to the line you take on the wall of the tunnel, just like in a toboggan. Pressing Fire sends a laser beam down the tunnel, and you can vary the height of the laser by pulling backwards or forwards on the joystick.

There are three skill levels to choose from.

A beginner's level eases you into the game gently. A mid-range starting point takes you to the sixth level, while the hardest start, "The Labyrinth", throws you in at level 11.

The objectives on levels vary. Some require you to collect a series of objects, others to kill as many opponents as possible. Similarly, the track varies from twisting tunnels to winding race tracks.

Stars appear down the track to indicate the optimum route for speed. Occasionally, a turbo-boost pad appears. Running over this sends you to lightspeed: you go so fast that you can travel straight through solid objects.

Enemy STUN runners cruise the tunnels thick and fast, seeking to slow you down. The Train slowly travels along the bottom of the tunnel, Mag Cycles brake suddenly in front of you and Armoured Drones get in the way since they're unaffected by your laser fire. Flyers drop bombs or missiles onto the track and destroying them gives you a hearty bonus.

Initially STUN Runner looks excellent. A nice series of intro screens leads up to the start of the level. But the chronic animation hits you at once. The best aspect of the arcade game was its superb speed, completely lacking in the ST conversion. A series of dowdy frames limps past you with all the speed of a Ford worker between tea-breaks [Not necessarily the views of the management - Ed]. The laser looks incredibly crap: two small green lines poke out of your ship and don't even wiggle about or anything. Sound is dire: blips worse than a Casio watch.

This could have been a wicked game. If the programmers had sacrificed the solid tunnels for a wireframe format it would have been far better, although Tengen probably think otherwise. There's little to recommend this game, certainly not for £25. Nip down the arcade and play the original instead.