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At last, a good game! Did I say a good game? Well, it's a great game. So, OK it's not overly original "Collect the pod and select a better weapon" but it's fun, it's wicked, it's fab, it's Zynaps.

Zynaps is the shoot-'em-up of the summer. I enjoyed it more than Nemesis. While not as technically perfect as Delta it's still as good. It has some really groovy graphics which fit the mood of the game perfectly. There are plenty of blasting noises which are perfect for the game, and they go even better with any heavy metal music you happen to have playing in the background But soft, what light from younger window breaks? The plot, I hear you cry!

Zynaps is constructed like a comic book, with three episodes each divided into four chapters. The game begins with our hero escaping from an alien space station in his Scorpian Fighter. The poor guy then has to battle his way through hordes of alien nasties dodging asteroids and homing missiles until he finally reaches a nearby planet where he can equip his ship with weapons and hyperspace engines. These will help him reach the alien base, and then it's time for the final conflict...

Trying to stop you are five different types of aliens, each one more powerful than the last. The easiest type are the plain ol' boring spacecraft; all it takes is a bit of chuga chuga bang bang and voila, one frazzled alien squad. Next are those scourges of the ground, installations, they can be bombed or shot, but they spend most of their lives living in cracks where you can't him them.

At the end of each chapter you get the Command Ships. These are not easier, no siree, they fire homing bullets at you and generally whizz around a lot. One small consolation is that, like their relatives in Nemesis, they get bored quite easily and have a tendency to blow themselves up. Now motherships are just like their names insinuate, real mothers - like their little buddies, the command ships, they are exceedingly difficult to kill. The only major difference is that they're about ten times larger than ordinary command ships. Then you have meatball-lookalike asteroids and other bits of space debris who, although they know that space is infinitely big, still think it's great fun to float exactly where you want to fly.

But what can you equip your craft with? Well, first you have to collect an energy pod. Collect enough and a weapon will highlight, keep fire pressed and the ship will flash and the next energy pod you collect will activate the weapon.

1. Pulse lasers These are ideal for meanie mashing, and can be upgraded four times.

2. Plasma Bombs Like the missile in Nemesis.

3. Homing missiles When you get to a mothership and think to yourself, oh *@&$ this is what you need, almost guaranteed to clear most command and motherships.

4. Seeker missiles These are nifty, they'll go for almost anything on screen and kill them. Just like that.

Unfortunately for diehard Defender fans there are none of the traditional smart bombs. They're a coward's weapon if you ask me, anyway real men fire live ammo, and Zynaps is better without them!