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Utopia is another game written by Starship Software, also repsonsible for Rola Ball and Spy Against Spy. But these pale into insignificance compared with Utopia their latest game and undoubtedly their best.

A Utopia is "an imaginary state with perfect political and social conditions or constitution". Until recently (in the game scenario) the man-made colony of the same name was just that. The Galactic Federation built it up into an idea artrficial planet, but now it has fallen into a state of disrepair and as a result is no longer the perfect place it used to be.

Unfortunately, however, the inhabitants of Utopia are unable to leave the planet because of its complex defence systems. Originally they were designed to stop intruders from entering the colony, but what the Federation failed to realise was that the people who lived there were as a result trapped, with no means of escape.

The task of escaping from Utopia has been given to you. As a member of the rebels, you must guide three of the most advanced star fighters, stolen from the Federation, through Utopia s complex defence system to freedom.

The three star fighters in your possession are so advanced that they have laser beams that cannot be seen. This prevents the enemy from dodging the lasers, and makes your ships almost totally indestructable.

However, as part of Utopia's defences, there is a fleet of kamikaze shuttle craft which, instead of firing at you, will home in on your ship and attempt to collide with it, unless you can stop them.

The planet surface is strewn with objects. Many of them are defences, some are just plain obstacles to avoid. Among the defences are the aforementioned shuttle craft, rocket launchers and force fields.

To aid your progress in the game, there are various fuel pods strewn around the planet which must be flown over in order to raise your fuel levels.

It must be noted that the main aim of this game is not to achieve outstanding scores, although it is nice to do so, but to retain enough fuel to enable you to fly out over the planet.

A score is achieved each time you destroy an enemy craft, although your score can be considerably increased when your ships are flown over certain strips of land.

Should your fuel fall below zero or should you hit one of the numerous objects, you will immediately die and be sent back to the beginning of the game.

This is a shortcoming of many games; Rola Ball suffers from the same problem. Why programmers continue to use this irritating routine puzzles me. The net effect is that the user will become very bored with the game if, every time he or she dies, they are sent back to the beginning to repeat what has just gone before. It is particularly annoying when you are just a short distance from the end of the game - not that I have got that far with this one.

Utopia is a difficult game, perhaps too difficult. Maybe some of you will say that this provides a challenge, but the game really does suffer from only giving you three lives. Nobody can be expect to complete a massive game like this with only three lives. No doubt the hackers will come up with a miracle cheat code which will dramatically increase lives.

The graphics are really first class. I would say they're among the best I have seen. although the screen and your ship do occasionally flicker as the screen scrolls. The sound and music is excellent; the title music in particular is pleasant and well put together.

Utopia is a bit like a former game for the BBC called Fortress. Utopia doesn't look anything like Fortress, but the aim is virtually the same and the two games have the same feel - and like Fortess, it is all too easy to get killed!

For my money Utopia is one of the best Dragon games of all time despite minor faults, and Jonathan Cartwright and the rest of the crew at Starship deserve praise for the work on it.