We all know this genre of game (assuming you're above a certain age) - you're a lone spaceship sent out from god-knows-where in order to stop something evil from happening. I can hear you all gasp with excitement and reach sweaty-pawed for your joystick (we all know these games suited joysticks better), ready to duel the evilness in the verse. Then you die. Swiftly

And why do you die swiftly? Why, that's easy - because this is the toughest game I have ever player for the SNES, the reason being that all it takes is one shot, one piece of shrapnel of one careless wall-bound fit of flying that will end your life. That's it. With the exception of the rare occasion during which you get a shield, one shot and ur dead. To make things EVEN TOUGHER, when you are brought back after death, you begin the level right at the start again, and you are back to your basic ammo.

Why, oh why, with all thie treacherous difficulty, do I still love this game with all my wee heart? Well, I am struggling to put my finger on this myself but I think the primary reason is due to the fact that the price you pay for losing your life on screen is so great that you are keenly zoomed into every pixel on screen, and you have an eye on every section of crossfire in the game.

The game itself is just pure beauty - it's obvious an awful lot of effort went into crafting together the fantastic bosses and lush levels - They're just fantastic. You also have really cool powerups, along with your little bubble you can shoot ahead/behind you or even throw out on its own and let it blast away without worrying about damage - it provides a good mechanism for shooting in both directions at once and all sorts of other trickery. The gameplay is simple, yet deep and involving, only shortcoming I can think is lack of co-operative 2-player mode - otherwise the game is just fantastic.