Has anyone ever noticed how Gateway supermarkets seem to have been designed specifically as Lazer Tag arenas? Forget the Saturday morning trip down to the shopping centre for your Sunday joint, vegeburger or whatever - replace your shopping lists with the latest in Infra-red technology Granny; we're talking targets not trolleys here! The creepy mist, the atmospheric music and the slippery floors, it's all at Gateway. The only problem is the store manager brandishing a leg of frozen lamb!
    Yes Ben 'n' Skippy are well and truly veterans of the light fantastic (albeit Infra-red!). But what has blasting each other with Lazer Tag toys got to do with Go!'s game of the same name? Good Question...
    The year is 3010 and you have just been enrolled into the Laser Tag Training school - in the hope that, just maybe, one day you may be good enough to carry the title of Duellist and be entered in the Laser Tag games.
    As all other cadets before you, you have to prove yourself in the vertically scrolling arena and thus be promoted through the six levels, from Neophyte to Duellist. Each level has a slightly different playing area and is played in two phases: the first, called Rabitoid. Is a straight shoot out with other cadets, who are all just as eager as you to climb the ranks and just as nifty with their Laser Tag weapons too. Here the player races against the clock to the end of the arena, to gain a whopping great bonus tagging out as many opponents as possible on the way, and icons can be picked up for extra points, time, lives or increased firepower. The second phase, called Target, is a lot less hassle. The player follows a fixed path through the arena and picks off targets, who don't shoot back, as they pop up around the place. This time the bonus is calculated from the shooters accuracy.
    On the whole Laser Tag plays like a mediocre Commando variant with insipid opponents (even on the higher levels), and a boring section in the middle that breaks up the gameplay drastically. The bouncy bullets/Laser blasts are a nice touch (and one of the few tie-ins with Laser Tag proper), but more often than not it's very difficult to see the surfaces that you can bounce your blasts off, or the things that you're supposed to shoot at, because the graphics are poorly coloured and detailed.
    When you consider that with a bit of shopping around, you can pick up an original Laser Tag set for around twenty quid, the price tag of £8.99 on this seems to be well wide of the mark. I know which I'd rather spend my money on.

Ratings given by other magazines

5/10      5/10

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