Buzzzz... here comes an arcade adventure converted from the Spectrum. BarnaBEE is the hero of the hour, and he's on a quest to find his cousin who's been kidnapped by a vicious gang of ants.

Deep inside the ants' nest you'll have to delve to rescue poor Boris. Naturally, this is not a simple task and yukky insects will block your path as you enter the depths of the nest.

There are also little spikey blue blobs left lying around which the instructions don't tell you about, but which you'll soon suss are poisonous and sap your stamina.

Controlling your bee is quite a simple task: left and right and fly, although BarnaBEE does have a lot of inertia.

There are many screens in this adventure, most of which are easy to fly around. Collect the pollen from each flower on the screen: sometimes this will open a door to another screen - indeed the door opened may itself be on a different screen to the one you're on. These ants' nests are complicated places.

Another way to make a new exit or entrance is by touching certain walls: they may dissolve giving you a new passage.

There are two entrances to the underground complex, both of which need to be used. Occasionally a room can only be half-searched, and you will need to backtrack before you can complete your exploration.

This conversion was a long time coming, and unfortunately the wait has taken its toll. The simple maze-type arcade adventure is no longer in the forefront of things, having been superseded by more complicated games. The straightforward mazes and relatively simple object of the game make it very dated and money would be better spent on newer offerings.

This game is graphically Spectrumesque and also sounds very much like its rubber-keyed counterpart. The tune is a version of Bach's Toccata and Fugue and, although having the right notes, sounds thin and reedy through a feeble one channel. Although it'll keep the mappers happy for a while, I can't see it doing any better than the Spectrum version.

On-screen throughout the game you will see a bar marked 'stamina'. This ticks down slowly, acting as a timer - when it's gone, the game ends. Collision with an insect would normally cause a large fall in stamina. However, you can guard against this by collecting pollen.

Basically, the more pollen you have (as indicated on another bar), the less your stamina is affected by collision with insects. However, each collision also causes you to lose pollen so, to ensure a long game, it's in your interest to keep collecting the stuff.

Presentation 53%
Sparse instructions but a great high score table.

Originality 63%
C64 owners haven't had too many arcade adventures.

Graphics 49%
Spectrumesque.

Hookability 59%
Exploring and mapping keep you going.

Sound 49%
Spectrumesque.

Lastability 48%
Little to do once you've mapped it.

Value For Money 54%
Spectrum game at a Spectrum price.

Overall 54%