Iridion 3D

'In this rail shooter, you're a lone star-pilot defending earth from the invading hordes of the sinister Iridion empire. At the end of each of the blistering-fast seven stages, the forced-scrolling halts so you can battle a gigantic boss.

While action seldom slows from nonstop, be on the lookout for weapons upgrades and shimmering multicolored icons, which restore precious energy. Your experimental SHN-Fighter comes with red, green, gold and purple lasers, which must be powered up with the same color. For example, if you snare two green power-ups, you can fire two green lasers, but if you then grab a red power-up, you'll revert to your weakest red laser.

Developer Shin'en has done a slam-bang job with the graphics, meriting special kudos for the great water and lava effects. The techno score sounds fab on the GBA's excellent speakers. One tiny quibble: the lack of multiplayer support might limit the game's long-term playability.'