Game players can manage football clubs, cities and even whole universes. With the arrival of StarTopia, you can add space stations to the list.

Set after an intergalactic war, the game requires the player to rebuild a series of the space stations and make them habitable again.

In a series of missions, players must build all the facilities within the stations' cavernous sections to ensure their smooth running.

These include sleeping bays for tired extra-terrestrials, toilet facilities and even love nests.

The key to success is ensuring all the inhabitants of the stations, which include aliens with four arms and two heads, are happy, healthy and wise.

Different species can be hired to work in medical centres during a disease outbreak, to recycle waste or annihilate rival teams.

Further into the game there is a bio-deck where food and even narcotics can be grown and landscapes created to keep all the visitors happy.

Intergalactic traders can stop by to off load their merchandise which can either be used to spruce up the stations or sell on at a profit.

Muddy Foot have spent a long time creating a thoroughly addictive and, at times, hilarious piece of software.

The graphics are cute and colourful and there are some ingenious new takes on the genre, including VAL, your sarcastic robotic guide through the game.

There are a few niggles, particularly with the camera angles which can be a nuisance and the controls are a touch fiddly.

Nonetheless, StarTopia is highly recommended.

Price: £29.99.

Contact: www.startopiagame.com
Feel good factor: 8 out of 10.