"OK," said the wizard. "Get this! You've really had it this time because I'm turning you into a ball. And not just any ball... no, a ball with a skin so thin that it will burst at the slightest contact with anything sharp." You try and imagine what he would have done if he'd been really angry.

You begin contemplating your fate when the wizard starts off again with what you desperately hope is his finale... "and worst of all," he raves, "you have a slow puncture so you'll need to keep pumping yourself up. Of course, if you stay on a pump too long you'll burst!"

The game starts in a beautifully designed square room with you, a flimsy ball, resting on a pump. A scroll bar along the bottom of the screen shows you pressure rising as the pump does its job. Jump off too soon and you run out of puff before making it to the next pump. Too late and you burst like a balloon, leavinh you a limp heap on the floor.

Having jumped off the pump, you can go off exploring through any of the four doors in the first pump room. Two things become obvious almost immediately. Firstly, a map will come in very handy. Secondly, the graphic design of the rooms is quite breathtaking!

One lovely touch, that may not be appreciated by people with old TVs, can been seen in a group of locations to the west of the first pump room. When first entering this part of the castle, you could be forgiven for thinking the game had crashed. But look more carefully, and you'll see that, in fact, you're outside and it's the dead of night. The view of similar to that of a dark nightclub decorated with fluorescent paint.

Dotted around the place are crosses, tins of beans, a Buddha, a statue of a dragon, a pumpkin and crates needed to clear other obstacles. Having spent hours playing the pre-production sample rushed, at great expense, to C&VG's offices, we still haven't found any objects to pick up but we're still in there trying!

In most cases, getting from one room to the next is more a case of accurate joystick or mouse control, rather than the solution of complicated logic problems. So, if you're expecting another Batman or Head Over Heels, forget it. Airball is not that deep. It is, however, an impeccably coded and highly playable game that sets a high standard other companies will have to beat.

With titles like this appearing now, imagine the treats we're in for when programmers really get to grips with the ST! After all, the Spectrum had been around three years before Knight Lore stunned us all. Airball has appeared a little more than a year after the launch of the ST.

Airball is the first isometric arcade adventure, written specifically for the Atari ST, and has hit written all over it! If this is the standard we can expect of such games in the future, then form a queue... behind me!