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A little while ago, a trip to the software section of John Menzies would find you wading through piles of shoot-'em-ups, all begging for you to shoot them up. But recently the genre (useful word, that) seems to have fallen out of favour.

Well, never mind about that. Kixx are here with an oldie from '89 and, by golly, it's an incredible bargain at only eight quid. Saint Dragon has you playing the beatified mythical thingy itself, only it's sort of a mechanical one that snakes around very much like a snake.

This is a horizontally-scrolling affair, so the baddies enter screen right and you just have to blast away at them. One hit and then you've had it - there's none of that pathetic pansying around here, though you do benefit by getting loads of credits.

Here and there are those groovy power-ups that need to be shot before they work. Pick these up and you can treat yourself to exciting stuff like triple fire, large lasers and bouncy shots. You need to get all these things for the end-of-level guardians, which, in the case of Level One, happens to be a large mechanical cow.

And so it goes. The graphics are interesting, with some good detail, and they all shift around with no jerking. Sound is execrable, as always.

Saint Dragon is a bit of a surprise really. You don't normally expect a great deal from a budget re-release, so if you find a game that's fun, challenging and also attractive to look at - a bit like Saint Dragon, in fact - it's a bit of a bonus. Perhaps Saint Dragon will remind the software houses of how much fun a good shoot-'em-up has the potential to be.

1. Like R-Type, but faster and perhaps just a bit tougher.
2. Detailed graphics and solid gameplay. In fact, it's a great little blaster all round.