Sparklers
£1.99

Krypton Factor for droids, Metaldrone is a spanky little number from Sparklers 199 series. Your terrifying task is to negotiate the Cybasphere Assault Course, a ten level leveller of all but the most acrobatic of arcaders. Easi-peesy? Phewy, wot, I should say not!

On each level the aim of the game's the same but the route to success deviously different. You must identify the Cybasphere leader who materialises from a generator along with all the other nasties - various creepies, ghouls and round bouncy things. Once smitten he turns into a disk which when picked up turns into a missile launcher. Combined with a computer disk also secreted on each level, this gives you the means to blast your way through the exit and on to the next section.

This'd all be very well except that you only have seventy seconds to carry out your search and destroy deviousness. And until you annihilate the Cybasphere leader you'll waste a lot of time marmalizing his minions, who use up your energy something chronic when they touch you. Mind you, objects found about the course like jet packs, NRG packs and even rubber ducks make the task a lot easier.

What makes Metaldrone drone, sweet drone - it's clarity of graphics, single mindedness of purpose and duration - is unfortunately qualified by its drone, boring, drone elements - no joystick facility, very slow screen agility, slow motion fire power and collision detection that'd be tragic if it wasn't so hilarious. So sorry, Sparklers, nice try, but no matter how cheap you make this, it'll always end up on its dronesome on the shelf.