Mastertronic Plus
£2.99

Now this is more like it! A totally simple but terribly addictive game. Everyone must know the old Tron style game where two bikers race around an arena leaving a trail behind them. If you cross the trail or bang into the edge of the arena you lose a life. It has to be the simplest, most enjoyable formula for a game ever!

Raster Runner is an up to date version of this with a smooth scrolling background, animated smashes and devilishly hard opponents to compete against. You and your Plasma Bike are armed with three shields. Using one of these makes the bike flash for a bit: while it flashes you can cross any of the trails to get out of a tricky situation. The name of the game is points. You have to collect as many as possible to get higher up the score table.

Raster Runner is really addictive as it is, but it could have been made even better. With just the one arena to compete in things get a bit boring after the 435th go! A few obstacles stuck around the place would have made life more exciting. A radar scanner at the top of the screen showing the position of all the trails helps in the racing. The trouble with this is you keep your eyes on it all the time, however, it doesn't spoil the game too much.

Raster Runner is an essential purchase if you want a game that'll keep you addicted for a long time. And if you get fed up, you can always use the radar scanner as an etch-a-sketch!

BARGAIN BASEMENT

It's time to tiptoe down those creaky old stairs again. JONATHAN DAVIES leads the way...

Mastertronic Plus
£2.99
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

Remember the Light Cycles bit in Tron? Remember all those Speccy versions of it that came out years ago? Remember how they were simple but terribly addictive they all were (most of them, anyway)? Well, here's another one. And, what's more, it's completely brilliant!

The idea's simple enough. You control a little wiggly line, and another player controls another little wiggly line. You've got to make your line as long as possible without crashing into anything. Boring, eh? Not at all. There are piles of different strategies, and Raster-Runner incorporates a few new ideas too. First of all, as well as seeing the whole playing area at the top of the screen complete with wiggly lines and not much else, each players gets a scrolling close-up. For added excitement, try sellotaping a bit of loo-roll or something over the main window. This means that split- second decisions need to be made because you're never quite sure what's going to scroll on next.

Also, you're given the option to play against the computer. There are three difficulty levels, all of which are completely impossible (of course). And finally, pressing Fire make you invincible for a few seconds. This is for emergency use only, as you can only do it a couple of times.

Spookily, I couldn't stop playing it - it's just so good. In fact, I'm typing one-handed at the moment. The other's playing Raster-Runner. Actually that's a lie. But it's really, really good anyway, and well worht a week's pocket money. (Or three weeks' if your dad's anything like mine. Or you work for YS.)

Label: Mastertronic
Price: £2.99
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

No. this isn't a game about chasing after men wearing red yellow and green bobble-hats, so you can get that idea right out of your mind, it's even more surprising than that; a version of a real oldie, the ancient Gridrunner theme; pilot your light bike around a grid, laying down a plasma trail, trying to manoeuvre your human or computerised computer into a tragic accident. The justification for digging up this digital dinosaur is a 23rd century deathsport featuring performers like Gazza P and Flathead Andy (surely familiar names in the computer industry?). You have ten lives, shown by a large digital counter in the status area, and you get 1 point for each second you survive, and a 1000 point bonus for winning a round. The rider with the highest score at the end of the rounds gets the title of Supreme Champion, hurrah!

A central radar screen gives a top-down view of the entire raster field, while the two players are shown in individual screens on the left and right. There's one twist which makes Raster Runner superior to earlier incarnations; in each round you get three energy shields. Prod the fire button, and for a few seconds you can bash into or cross over a plasma barrier without damage. But for each unused shield at the end of a round you get 100 bonus points, so you don't want to use them unnecessarily.

The great thing about the game is that because there's so little moving on the screen - just the background grid and the angle of the bikes - the action is blisteringly fast and the animation very smooth. The computerised opponent operates on three skill levels, the most advanced of which is very fast and clever - so much so that he sometimes manages to move diagonally! You have to be really good to outsmart him, considering that even when you box him in, he can escape three times using a shield.

Nothing in the way of originality here then, but with good sound FX and music and exceptionally fast gameplay, Raster Runner is going to keep you on the trot for a months.