Thrust has a lot to answer for. In a good way, natch. Coding genius Jonathan Cauldwell took it unto himself to create a game in five hours at the 2004 ORSAM show. The result was Lunaris.

Lunaris was once available from Jonathan's website (now no longer the case as it's meant to be on sale via Retro Soft's site but I can't see it there). All kind of irrelevant, to be honest, but it adds a little bit of background.

The official story is that you play space adventurer Henri Latrine and he's located by accident an undiscovered, now abandoned, planet. Henri's decided to loot the place, collecting orbs which are scattered around each level.

The version I am reviewing is the slightly enhanced version which includes a musical track created by Matt Westcott. It's a great tune, played throughout. It's one which doesn't irritate me when it loops for the nth time. This lack of irritation isn't a regular occurrence, so for Lunaris, it's a Good Thing.

Lunaris is a good alternative to Thrust. For those who haven't played the venerable game (or read the TRB review), you are controlling a ship which is affected totally by gravity and inertia. Handled well, this type of game gives you a massive amount of frustration and pleasure simultaneously. And that's what Thrust does. This means that Lunaris needs to either equal the grandfather of the genre or offer something different to make it worth your while playing.

Thankfully, Lunaris is great and thus worthy of your attention. There are just enough differences in game play which mean that you can't simply write it off as just another clone. To start with, you're not restricted by fuel limits. This gives the game a whole new way of looking at it. With Thrust, you were always keeping an eye on your fuel and any more deposits lying around.

So this gives you some extra freedom. You still have to worry about the gravity and inertia but at least you can manage the levels at your own pace, without worrying about running out of fuel. You also don't have any shields, so the pay-off for unlimited fuel is being a little more vulnerable.

Another game play difference is that here you need to simply collect the orbs which are located all around the level. There are some orbs placed in some tricky places I can tell you! Tricky, but not impossible to get to. Your mission is also obstructed by some gun turrets, which will fire at you.

The gun turrets don't appear until later levels; this is part of the learning curve. Level one has you travelling over six screens, collecting thirteen orbs. From level two onwards, the game area gets bigger and more complex. Luckily, you don't have to return each orb to a central location, as you do in Thrust.

Whilst each level gets more complex and provides a greater challenge, the game is presented with a password level selector, which adds greatly to the accessibility and replay value. I've been stuck on level four for quite some time and it would get extremely annoying if I had to wade my way through the first three levels each time I played the game.

As you'd expect with this type of game, there is a high degree of addiction / frustration. If you have played similar games in this genre then you'll know that's the main attraction. Lunaris manages this remarkably well, given its' development time. The levels have been constructed fairly, yet challenging and there's more than enough addictiveness to keep you going until you complete it.

Having fun goes without saying; it takes very little time to get used to the controls and once you do, you're hooked. Being able to move within a pixel-distance from an object and not crashing, whilst smoothly moving through the screen is a joy.

The presentation is also good. Your craft may look like a Star Trek communicator badge but the rest of the graphics are better than average. The background graphics change with each level, which add some variety. As mentioned earlier, the in-game music is great though there's a complete lack of sound effects. You do get used to it but you do miss not hearing a thrusting or shooting sound.

The game doesn't scroll, instead you move by flick-screen. Now this has the advantage of you not being fired upon by off-screen gun turrets but you also need to be careful about charging around the screen as you don't know what's in the next screen until you get there. It's not a problem per se, just different.

Another 'difference' is when you collect the last orb, the game doesn't freeze in anticipation of the next level starting, so you have to be careful not to crash into a wall! Again, it's only something slightly minor, but it's worth a footnote.

I'm not sure how many levels there are to Lunaris; I have got to an impasse at level four. However I am more than willing to invest time into getting beyond that level. If it turns out that Lunaris has but four levels, I would be disappointed, however within that there is still a decent amount of game there, worthy of many a repeat play.

Graphics: 68% Background graphics are good with a basic ship sprite	Sound: 75% Excellent music played throughout, though no sfx	Overall: 85% A great game, well worth spending time on
Addictiveness 85% A high addictive / frustration factor, as expected	Playability: 86% Accessible, playable. Thoroughly enjoyable