Asteroid Zone

The thought of visiting space is a terrifying one – just watch Event Horizon or Sunshine if you don't agree. From what we've seen, all too often people seem to end up outside the spaceship without a space suit on. Then their lungs explode, their skin burns up or freezes off and finally their limbs shatter and go floating off into infinity in opposite directions.

Rescuing astronauts from the fate of such horrific disintegration (really, can you think of dispersive death than that?) therefore seems a worthy goal, and it just happens to be what you do in Asteroid Zone.

A 34th century war has broken out and is being fought in galaxies far, far away. Allied scientists have been tricked into boarding enemy space stations and it's your mission to break them free.

Which is easier said than done. Not only do you need to achieve this while protecting your own space station from attack, you're also being bombarded by enemy fire from all directions. Oh, and once you've set a group of scientists free – by blowing up the enemy space station they're being held in – you also have a limited time to rescue them all before they're reduced to space vapour.

The way the game controls is similar to retro arcade titles like – you've guessed it – Asteroids. You can rotate your spaceship clockwise or counter-clockwise using '4' and '6' or the thumbstick, and then thrust forwards when pointing in the direction you want to go.

The fire button initially just gives you single bursts of ammo from the front of your ship, but as you upgrade there are rear weapons and multiple fire options available, as well as mines to be dropped and detonated.

Controlling your ship is almost deliberately fiddly – there's a knack to discover in part-floating, part-thrusting through space, and both lining up enemy ships and picking up the drifting astronauts is far tougher than it looks.

Likewise with the boss battles, they seem like straightforward rapid-firing stuff but are in fact quite tough, mainly because it's not easy to quickly change direction and get out of the way of danger.

Subtle turns and sharp shooting aren't all you require to get you through Asteroid Zone, though. You also need the right tools, and the game has a comprehensive upgrading system where you research then equip new weapons, shields, boosters and ships throughout.

Cleverly, after each level you can assign the scientists you've rescued amongst three research areas. The more scientists, the quicker their research is completed. Status bars visualise their progress, and once a bar is full, you'll get new toys to slot into your craft.

It's a neat reward system that pays off your hard work in each level. In total, 32 of these stages exist, separated into four different areas. Being space-based, there's not too much to tell them apart but you do at least get new enemies.

The scientists also earn their wages in another ingenious way. Once you've picked one up, they attach themselves to your ship. You can carry up to six at a time before having to drop them off at your space station. And they're not there merely for decoration – pressing '8' changes their formation so they form a shield around your ship.

You can't fire while they're circling, but they do bounce away enemy ships very effectively. The pay-off is their health, which depletes quicker than when they're just trailing behind, meaning you need to reach their drop-off point faster.

Asteroid Zone is an easily involving game. Each level is compact – continuing in any one direction soon loops you around on yourself – so the action never slows down, and navigation is a no-brainer due to edge-of-screen arrows pointing to the next enemy or scientist to pick up. But there's depth, too – you'll need to work out the various strategies required for the different stages. Then, there's also the replay value of re-visiting a past level to try and rescue all the scientists, or unlock the various medals on offer.

It's not perfect, of course. The control system sometimes feels unfair (such as when you spot an enemy but simply can't line up in time to shoot it), and the sound effects aren't quite as explosive as you'd like. But Asteroid Zone is the sort of shooter that you can easily, and pleasingly, while away several hours playing.

Besides, until the foolproof space suits turn up, this undoubtedly has to be the more enjoyable (and safer) option of venturing off into the final frontier.