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Batty Builders is a one-player game with excellent graphics but very little else going for it.

The object is to complete an unfinished wall out of patterned blocks falling from an overhead conveyor. The squares have to be caught by a joystick-controlled brickie at the base and thrown up by him to, hopefully, land on the desired section of wall. If your brickie fumbles his catch or is hit by a falling block, he loses one of his five lives. If you run out of blocks, the game ends.

When the wall is complete, your score is updated and you move to the next level (there are eight). Ensuring the finished wall has rows of blocks built in a uniform pattern brings bonus points. Later screens have your brickie frenziedly dancing to catch blocks and avoid horizontally scrolling crates of TNT at the same time.

Unfortunately the game soon becomes tedious; which is a pity as obviously a lot of effort and programming skill has been expended, although the basic idea surely wasn't worth it. Batty Builders goes to show that technical expertise is no substitute for imagination.

T.A.