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There are things to be said against Xenon 2, of course. Collision detection sometimes seems a little wobbly (to say the least!) and the gameplay doesn't really vary very much (vertical scrollers never give you all that much room to move at the best of times) but these objections are thoroughly trounced by the simple experience of it. It's not often that computer game graphics have been so thoroughly arcade-like (indeed Xenon 2 even out-arcades actual coin-op licences), it's hard to think of another game that's bolted quite so many weapons onto a single space ship and never has music added quite so much to a game (the game is almost worth it just for the sound alone). Make no mistake - Xenon 2 at £10.99 has to be one of the bargains, if not the bargain of the year.

So what makes it so good? Well, the presentation is lovely (that Assault On Precinct 13 tune by Bomb The Bass, the gorgeous shop sequence, the film-like credits), the gameplay itself is competent verging on the clever (but never really any better than that), but you can't get away from the fact that it's the graphics that carry it off. Just look at the screenshots (arcade or Amiga, who can tell?). Then buy it - it'll be worth the money, if only to impress your friends.

An audio-visual banquet hung around the skeleton of a fairly ordinary (but pretty tough) vertically scrolling blaster. Still one of the most impressive Amiga games around in terms of sheer, well, impressiveness.