You know you're in for a good time when the high score table is entitled "top eight thrusters". Smut aside, Thrust is one of the best budget-release games on the Spectrum.

One aspect you need to be fully aware of is that Thrust is hugely addictive / frustrating. You need a high degree of skill and concentration and if you're a joystick junkie, then learn to play via the keys as precision moving is mandatory.

Thrust is one of those games which just cries out to be in the Most Insanely Annoying TRB Award category. But as it's not rubbish, it's not. The grip of the game is quite powerful. You can be carefully dragging up a pod around a maze of tunnels for you to have your concentration slip for a second, so you over-compensate in moving in the wrong direction and .... CRUNCH. You've collided with a wall. Mucho weeping commences. Er, yes.

Thrust has a decidedly sci-fi plot, more akin to a certain Lucasfilm series of movies but at least it's interesting for a change. You are a pilot in an un-named resistance cell, with a major offensive against the Intergalactic Empire to look forward to. Your resistance has nicked lots of big, powerful ships but not the power sources. The clots. (You'd think the power sources would be in the ships. Not here ....)

So this is where the game begins. You're now piloting a small craft, negotiating around the Empire's storage planets, collecting the ovoid power sources. As you'd expect, there are defence mechanisms in the form of guns attached to walls throughout the storage facility, known as limpet guns. They'll fire on you, natch. You can destroy them, which is advisable as more often than not you're on a one-way path to find the power sources and you'll meet them on the way back if they're not destroyed first.

A twist to the game is that there's a reactor on the surface which controls the power to the guns. You can fire at it and disable the guns on a temporary basis. You can fire at it too many times and it'll go critical, blowing up the planet (and you) if you've not zoomed off into the atmosphere first. The best win for each level is to collect the power source, destroy all the guns and set the reactor onto a critical meltdown. And escape. No pressure, huh?

Indeed. As my driving instructor says to me (constantly), "what do you want, control or speed?". In respect for Thrust, you definitely need control. Sooooo much control is needed. And this is where the fun comes in. As you navigate through each storage planet, you have to initially be cautious as you don't know what to expect. Or where the limpet guns are. Or the energy pods either, to be honest. Unless you've looked at a map beforehand, that is.

So you are flying around, attempting to defeat gravity, firing at limpet guns and desperately trying not to crash into the floor or walls. Or anything else for that matter. And that's the game. It's wonderfully frustratingly addictively playable.

Compared to many games, Thrust (and not 'Thurst' as I keep on typing) is much more difficult. Except this on this instance, that isn't a criticism. You are guided through each stage, getting chance to learn each new element, one level at a time. For example, level one is essentially straightforward; you don't go through any caverns; the energy pod is next to a limpet turret and a reactor, so you learn how to control your craft, avoid bullets and collect the pods. You can still end up crashing and burning, but that's a given on any level.

Level two then allows you to progress into caverns, whereby you meet more turrets, fuel canisters and so forth through the levels. By level four, you've got levers to activate to enable progression. Once you've passed level six, the game does cycle back round to the first game map. With one major difference. I'll let you find that one out for yourselves ...

It took quite a lot of playing to get onto level four; that's a credit to how strong the addictiveness is and how much pleasure I have got from playing Thrust. You learn how far you can fall without needing to apply the engines, what angle you need to rotate your craft to with the pod on tow to move around the corners etc.

There are little touches, such as the border will briefly flash if you destroy a turret (or fuel) off-screen, the way the fuel changes colour as you absorb it and how you can accidentally kill yourself if you shoot your pod. Ahem.

Above all, playability and addictiveness rule in Thrust. The vector graphics suit the game, even if they are a little simple. Later games in the same genre have used sprite-based graphics which have also worked. The push-screen scrolling employed is smooth, however the game would work a better using a four-way type. Similarly, the sound effects are quite basic but effective. They sound quite eerie, almost organic but fit in with the game like a glove.

All that for just £1.99 upon release. Thrust is one of the Spectrum's best budget releases and a supremely addictive game, regardless of price point. Even with only six levels, it will take you some time to complete them all. Go and be a top thruster today, you won't regret it.

Graphics: 65% Smooth vector graphics used to a decent effect	Sound: 58% Minimal, but they're adequate	Overall: 87% One of the best addictive / frustrating games around
Addictiveness 88% Hugely addictive / frustrating (in a good way)	Playability: 85% Wonderfully playable