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Oh Gawd, even the title of this game's making me hungry, it's half past ten in the morning and I'm starving. But ignoring my rumbling tum (7.3 on the Richter Scale), I'll bravely carry on with the Bangers And Mash review.

The heroes of the game are chimpanzees: Bangers and his brother Mash (so named 'coz the midwife accidentally set on him when he was born), are apparently the subject of a children's TV show, so I supposed you'd call this a licence the girlies with! Also watch out for flowers: there are four types but not all are helpful. White ones acts like smart bombs, purple ones give bonus points, blue flowers temporarily reverse controls and red ones kill our hero (although all mention of these was also missing from our instruction sheet!).

In the status panel, there's a section with icons for the three different types of fruit. When all the counters hit zero, it's time to move onto the next level (accessed via reaching the top of the screen), and battle more of Snitchnose's troops.

I love the PG Tips ads on the TV, and have a soft spot for chimpanzees in general, so I loaded Bangers And Mash with high hopes. Sadly, though, I ended up disappointed. Graphically, the game's pretty horrid, the sprites are colourful but blocky (is the main sprite a chimp or a deformed human?)

The collect-'em-up element is simple enough, but the evil denizens are overly enthusiastic in their ape-bashing task. This is very frustrating and will no doubt put a lot of people off, and I'm not really sure it's worth carrying on. Time after time your character dies at the hands of Snitchnose and crew, and you feel like dropping your C64 from the tallest tree you can climb! If you have the patience of several saints, take a look at Bangers And Mash. The rest of us will just have to continue chewing the furniture.

I thought you always chewed furniture, Corky! But seriously, this game is very frustrating. Miss a platform and you often fall down an annoyingly long distance. There's also a problem when jumping up into the unknown - you often bump into a previously unseen baddy. It's a bit of a shame as otherwise the action's not that bad: a sort of simplified Rainbow Islands without the rainbows! Apart from the frustration, the main problem is lack of motivation - collecting all that fruit seems pretty pointless, especially to a chip lover like me!

Presentation 50%
Like the rest of the game, it's pretty bog standard.

Graphics 65%
Colourful, but definitely on the Lego-brick side.

Sound 60%
Bland title and in-game tune bog-standard sound FX

Hookability 55%
The rapidity of death is a right bit annoying

Lastability 52%
It really is a case of tearing your hair out!

Overall 53%