One of the best parts of our work is receiving games to consider for publication. Impact's New Year release is a highly enjoyable arcade-style game from first-time author and club member Jonathan Temple.

As soon as we played Orbital, we knew it was one of those games where you just can't stop wanting to have another go.

Your job is to help poor old Ozzy the Orbital on his latest solo mission to save his race from extinction. Quite a task when you have no arms, legs or even a body. But Ozzy's the man for the job.

You have to guide him through the twelve worlds of the Octopodes. Each world is built of blocks of varying height and Ozzy must be extremely careful as he can only fall a short distance without breaking into a thousand pieces.

He has to pick his route carefully, avoiding the patrolling Octopodes and yet still collecting all the plutonium marbles. He does not have much time to do it as the plutonium will gradually dissolve him.

Ozzy's one hope is his high manoeuvrability (we had to look that word up); Ozzy can be guided step by step and can even pick up marbles from a lower level without actually jumping down.

In order to complete a world you'll have to remember the destinations of the transporters and use them at the right time and in an appropriate sequence. There is often more than one way to complete a world. Some are quicker than others and some are just not quick enough. If you get stuck try a different approach.

You start the game with three lives. The worlds are in groups of four and after completing a group, you are given a security password allowing you to skip a completed group. However to complete the first part of the mission you must first complete all twelve worlds from start to finish without using any passwords.

If you manage this feat then you will start with three lives again (if you lost any) and then will come the real challenge. You must now complete all twelve worls again, only this time they will all be invisible and you will only see the marbles and the patrolling Octopodes! Madness is too kind a word for it.

Overall, Jonathan has created a highly addictive and playable game which is unlike anything currently available for the BBC and Electron.

Following Impact's commitment to producing top quality conversions for the Electron, we have once again placed great emphasis on the conversions of Orbital. The only difference between the BBC and Electron versions of Orbital is that there is one less Octopode on some worlds on the Electron version. This has allowed us to keep the speed of the game almost identical to the BBC version.