Forget the Detroit Cop. Here is the Kid. He is a cute, lovable steel-machine and his inly purpose is destruction. It is what he was built for.

When he starts off, the Kid is completely useless. He cannot fly, he is armed with a small laserblaster, and he is surrounded. Things do not look good. But walking around and hitting the gem-like objects, Kid can pick up some impressive weapons and enhancements. Firstly, he gets the ability to fly. After that he can get five-way blasters, massively destructive energy beams, super-speed and so on. All these are collected as Kid moves along infested tunnels, looking for the exit to the next level.

Valid Target
The levels pulsate with grotesque alien life forms and they are all valid targets. If the Kid touches an alien, he is not harmed, but his progress is slowed down dramatically. Many, however, launch bombs at him, which drain his shields until he explodes.

On the earlier levels, the aliens drift towards Robokid but later on he encounters static pods which fire almost continually and require planning to negotiate and a great deal of high-pressure blasting. There are 28 levels of this. The difficulty of each level varies. Some, near the beginning, are very hard. Others, further on, are easy-peasy. It is possible to access varying levels by choosing the different doors available to exit the level you have just completed. The discrepancies are not altogether unwelcome. It is depressing to keep fighting further forward knowing what lies ahead is bound to be harder and bloodier.

Atomic Robokid is, undoubtedly, a straight forward shoot em up. Rattle the fire button, kill the aliens and blast your way thruogh the various levels. It scrolls past merrily, offering more and more targets. And it is good enough to return to rime after time.

Suicidal Sight-Seeing
The speed suffers when things get crowded, but this can work to your advantage, giving you valuable microseconds of reaction time. You will need it. No one object moves particularly rapidly, but when enough of them are miling around, you can easily get overwhelmed.

The aliens and indeed the Kid himself are not very large, though. The actual playing area is fairly restricted, but there are some interesting backgrounds which float past. This detail adds a lot to the semi-organic atmoshpere engendered by the game. There certainly is variety here, and it is possible to revisit earlier parts of the level you are currently negotiating. Ideal for suicidal sightseers.

Sound is fine. The noises are what you would expect when murdering aliens, and the tune fits in well.

A cross between a vacuum cleaner and a helicopter gunship, Atomic Robokid is a sort of ultra-violent Metal Mickey character that could only be a Japanese creation. Cute, certainly, but not at the expense of some serious firepower.

When Robokid appeared as a coin-op it stood out amongst the R-Type clones as one of the few purest shoot em ups of recent years with at least as much wit and originality. Detailed, fast and furious, it made a total bypass of the braincells and aimed firmly for the trigger finger with the screens full of blinding colour, huge and inventive sprites and plenty of power ups. It did not exactly break new ground, but it was instantly enjoyable.

The Amiga version stays true to the spirit of the original. You can either try spotting all the bits more or less lifted from other arcade games, or you can get on and play. The early levels are quick and explosive without being too easy, providing a good balance for experienced gamers and novices alike.

You are not likely to get stuck at one particular point too often because each time a Robokid meets a sticky end, the droid that replaces him appears on an empty screen where the offending nasties have been rubbed off.

The continue option is also extremely handy for getting a decent way into the game without the hassle of constant restarting. Atomic Robokid can afford this because there are enough levels packed in to keep you busy for a very, very long time.

Probably the game's strongest feature is the number of different challegnes it throws at you. There are short and fast levels where the aim is to get through as quickly as your little booster jets will take you, and others are pitched battles between you and suitably monstrous end-of-level guardian type spries. There are even a few duelling levels thrown in, where you are up against another droid with similar firepower and dexterity as your own. It all adds up to one of the most colourful, accessible shooting games ever to find its way onto the Amiga.

Atomic Robokid's graphics are clean and sharp, if not quite full screen. The intricate backdrops remain faithful to the coin-op, but ultimately the graphics lack a little something in comparison to the arcade version and the excellent PC Engine CD ROM.

Amiga shoot em ups have always been short of luminescence - the sprites are well drawn, but they just do not have the brightness which gives their console and coin-op rivals a more three-dimensional feel. On Robokid, this particularly shows up at points like the end-of-game explosion (a screen-filling spiralling fireball), on other versions this effect is LOUD, on the Amiga it is just quite nice.

These reservations only come up because on the high standard Amiga games have now reached and Robokid is certainly not a bad offender, but it would be nice to have a little more DAZZLE in Amiga shoot em ups. After all, most of the fun from arcade games comes from frying a synapse or two. With that reservation aside, not much can equal Robokid, when he is tooled up with five-way fire and his 'big energy gun'.

This comes strongly recommended as a great source of mindless fun with a few surprises thrown in, but to be honest I think I would buy any game with a title like Atomic Robokid.

Nick Ross: Hello, I'm Nick Ross, and welcome to this month's edition of Crimewatch. (No, no, that's not what we are paying your for. Ed.) Later on we will be showing you a reconstruction in which a really crap old actress in a nightie will leap out of bed and feebly call out "Who is it? Is someone there?" before being trussed to a chair by three blokes in balaclavas. But first this:

The police need help in tracing a gang of armed robbers who broke into the offices of a computer games firm and made off with the scenario for their latest arcade conversion, Atomic Robokid. I'm joined now by P.C. Spamhead of the Chudley Under Bucket Incident room. Have you got a description for the viewers?"

"Well Nick, it is a pretty standard parallax-scrolling shoot em up, with all the usual fare, y'know: make your way through progressively more difficult levels peppered with obstacles and booby traps and creatures comeing at you from all directions, blast everything in sight, collect power ups and weapons, overcome a big baddie boss at the end of every third level - you get the picture."

"Erm, I meant a description of the robbers, actually. Never mind. (Turns back to camera frowning.) If you think you can help us with our enquiries, call us now. We will be back for an update soon. (Do not bother. Ed.) Don't have nightmares! Good night!"

Jane: You are Atomic Robokid and as shoot em up heroes go, you are a cute little fella, if a bit odd looking. You start the game with a feeble single-bullet gun, but the numerous power-ups will soon have you furnished with all manner of shooty things, designed to be just the ticket for some terrains and enemies, but utterly crap for others. This adds to the challenge of mastering the game.

In terms of action, gameplay and variety (in power-ups, obstacles and foes) Atomic Robokid stands up pretty well next to the shoot em up classics (R-Type, Xenon II et al). The biggest difference, however, is that scrolling occurs when you move Robokid, rather than speeding along regardless of your movements. This makes the pace slightly less frantic, and it also means you can scarper from big baddies to compose yourself (though you will still have to tackle the nasties coming at you from behind). This extra time allows you to bring an element of strategy into your gameplay, rather than relying on the speed of your instincts and thumb (or autofire facility!), though for die hard R-Typers, this could send the game dangerously close to shandy-drinkers' territory.

The background ditty and sound effects are distinctly underwhelming , but the graphics are cookin', with a cute style that sets Atomic Robokid apart visually from other blasters and makes a nice change. The continue option (which you get three chances to use) gets full marks.

Atomic Robokid is good, straightforward, value-for-money stuff: just about challenging and complex enough for the shoot em up expert but sufficiently simple and addictive to hook the novice too.

Robokid has just graduated from the Universal University of Space Combat. But to pay off all those student loans he urgently needs a job, so he 'volunteers' for a mission into dangerous enemy territory.

Robokid can walk (not in the C64 version) or use his jetpack to fly through multi-directionally scrolling levels. These are filled with alien gun turrets and various flying aliens which, although not fatal to touch, fire deadly bullets.

Robokid stars off with a standard gun to blast them. Killing one of the occasionally appearing Meta Birds reveals a gem containing a permanent extra weapon: Fire 2 (increased shot-power), Three-way fire, Five-way fire or Missile bombs (these are especially useful for destroying enemy bullets). Weapons can be switched between by pressing the Space bar (on the Amiga you can choose between this method and holding down fire).

Collecting four special gems on the Amiga gives Robokid either a shield or automatic fire lasting about 30 seconds. When he dies, Robokid loses the currently used weapon.

The route through the game's 28 levels can be chosen as some levels have more than one exit. Every third level features a massive end-of-level creature. When this is killed, Robokid must duel with a robot, shooting at it through a wall of moving asteroids.