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Android Zero, alias Bob Winner is off on a walking tour of the world, taking in Paris, London, New York and the desert wastelands and swamps in between. His destination is a secret temple. So secret is this temple that even Bob himself doesn't know where it is or what he hopes to achieve by reaching it.

Still, every android likes a challenge, and Bob is certainly up against indefinable odds. His arch enemy, 'The Other One', has sent out an army of French boxers with 'arrogant moustaches' who set about our hero in the streets of Paris.

On the other side of the channel, Bob comes across more boxing robots in the grounds of Buckingham Palace and on the banks of the Thames. After crossing the Atlantic, Bob meets his nemesis, for there stands 'The Other One', a pistol-packing person who has an unreasonable desire to disconnect the plucky automaton.

Bob's defence throughout his global adventure, apart from his prodigious agility, is his ability to change his appearance and fighting skills to match those of any opponent. To do this, he requires particular items which are often left lying about the place and which, when picked up, allow Bob to kick, box and shoot away at any foes until his energy, or that of his opponent runs out.

Why anyone would want to pay a tenner for this uninspiring mixture of beat-'em-up and arcade adventure is beyond me. The instructions are laughable: a combination of poor translation and insufficient explanations only supported by the decently drawn cartoon strip.

The digitised backdrops vary from being atmospherically hazy to horribly obscure: all are limp, ineffective and wishy-washy. The main character is slow and poorly animated and his opponents vary from ridiculous killer bees and big, slow bullets to frustrating quicksand; the sound is simply inappropriate and annoying.

Everything about this game is weak, and I can't recommend it.

I can't think of many beat-'em-ups that are worse than this. Fighting is almost instantly tedious since there are only a couple of moves, and the response to the joystick is very sluggish.

The difficulty level goes from one extreme to another. Opponents are despatched with ease by pointing the joystick in one direction and pressing Fire at regular intervals. Then, just to make up for the lack of difficulty, crossing swamps is made almost impossible by unbelievably tight collision detection - if you're a pixel out, Bob sinks slowly into the mud and loses a life.

The gameplay isn't the only thing that's bad: so are the graphics and sound. Loud digitised backdrops and lanky sprites are accompanied by grating sound effects.

The poor presentation and awful title tune are the final nails in the coffin. If Loriciels are going to make any impact on the Commodore market, they've got to do better than this.

Can this game have been as ill-conceived as the accompanying instructions suggest? From blatant fibs about Bob Winner being "a brilliant new game", they continue in a most vacuous vein through to a cartoon strip, which takes a step up from uniformative to confusing.

Nowhere (except in a publicity poster) is the player told that the objective is to reach a secret temple.

A secret temple? In New York? What *is* going on? Why does walking between Paris and London take the player through a desert of quicksand and giant wasps? Why are all the digitized backdrops rendered in a three-colour wash? Why does Bob look more like a tourist out for a stroll than an Indiana Jones-type hero? Why bother posing such questions when poor fighting gameplay and an overall silliness will have your computer switched off before you can answer any of them?

Presentation 32%
Awfully slow multi-load, even on the disk version. Thoroughly laughable instructions.

Graphics 41%
Oddly-coloured digitised backdrops and equally strange sprites.

Sound 25%
'Lots and lots of music' which all sounds the same. Minimal spot FX.

Hookability 27%
Play is inspired by the desire to see how far off-beam the instructions are.

Lastability 13%
It isn't worth wasting your time on such hopelessly silly and inconsistent gameplay.

Overall 12%
Bob certainly doesn't live up to his name.