Mutant Storm

Brought to you by the chaps behind the excellent Space Tripper, Mutant Storm is another slice of retro 2D shooting wrapped up in fancy new space-age 3D graphics. This time the blueprint is arcade classic Robotron, and as such sees you zipping around inside an assortment of narrowly confined environs (89 in all), trying to destroy literally hordes of scuttling, mutating beasties on a single-minded mission to kill I he control system also follows Robotron's example, with the ideal set-up consisting of dual joysticks -one to move and one to shoot. But this isn't exactly the commonest of peripherals and while you can cheat with a keyboard or keyboard/mouse configuration, both of these are poor shadows of the intended interface.

The sheer variety of threat types and attack patterns stuffed into the game's cramped quarters display plenty of ingenuity, and the whole package has been put together with considerable skill and style. However, this is still largely an exercise in nostalgia, which tor most of us will offer a couple of hours' obsessive key-bashing and no more.