Droidzone

Sinclair User

Overall 3/5

John Gilbert 3/5

Label: Digital Precision Author: Paul Tuck Price: £9.95 Joystick: Any The main mission's over but, on your way home from the great space battle, you're trapped by a black hole and plunged into the Droidzone. Hundreds of aliens home in on your pencil-shaped space ship as it whizzes clockwise and anticlockwise in a close imitation of that classic arcade game Tempest. The evil droids shoot out from all sides of the screen in a pre-programmed death dance. Their appearances are not so programmed and if you're in their way as they swirl and bop to the middle of the screen no amount of laserpower will stop their crushing might. There are three levels of play which are set at the beginning of the game. The slow level is adequate for beginners, intermediate is little different, and difficult, sadly, fails to live up to the standards of most arcade expert zappers I know. Still, maybe QL zappers are a breed apart. Droidzone has colourful Atari-style graphics but, in fairness to QL users, is fairly mind numbing. The game would have been hot in the age of games consoles five years ago - but is unlikely to enthrall many arcade fans this Christmas.