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Every so often, you see screen shots, for a forthcoming release, that are so mouthwatering you simply have to have that game the day it's launched if not sooner. Ball Breaker is one such game.

Essentially, Ball Breaker is ED Breadout turned on its side. The action takes place in a metal panelled room.

All the blocks, pyramids, spheres, diamonds, etc, to be destroyed, are ranged along the left-hand wall, although these sometimes encroach right up to the opposite wall of the room along which you move your bat, which looks like a multi-coloured Liquorice Allsort.

Level one is quite easy as all the blocks are arranged in a wall, quite a way back from your bat. Any block hit by the ball immediately explodes, creating a hole in the wall which is immediately filled by any blocks from above which drop down to fill the gap.

As you progress through the game you'll come across many different blocks and objects, all with differing properties. Some speed the ball up, while others cause it to bounce off the walk. From level two onwards. Things get much more frantic with funny animals perching on pedestrals, ready to surge forward and disintegrate your bat.

Missiles will also destroy any blocks on the screen, but should only be used in moments of acute embarrassment because your stock will soon run dry. The number of missiles remaining is shown in an extremely flash, but almost totally useless, status area.

Although the design of the graphics in Ball Breaker are extremely good, the gameplay is positively awful. The movement of your bat is slowed down by other things happening on the screen.

Add to this the difficulty of judging where your bat is in relation to the ball, the total absence of any instructions, and a level so difficult that many players may never get past it, and you've got a recipe for disaster!

Although graphically and musically stunning, and a brave innovative idea, Ball Breaker falls heavily at the last hurdle because it simply isn't playable compared with the Arkanoid and Krakout.