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The legacy of the Spectrum can be attributed to many things, but the fact that it was the system that so many enthusiasts grew up with, typing in code for hours in their bedrooms with the hope that by the end of it something resembling a game would appear is one of the reasons why the Speccy is so fondly remembered. Happily, there are still people like Gabriele Amore who enjoy producing Spectrum games.

He has quite a few homebrew titles under his belt: some half-finished or in need of polishing, some a bit 'different' and some that are lots of fun. Bubble Monkey Bros is without a doubt in the latter category - and a bit different.

You play a monkey desperate to collect all the bananas on the screen while avoiding the flying birds out to kill him. Consume every banana and soap appears, which can be eaten. The soap causes the monkey to fart bubbles that can trap enemy birds. Once caught, all they require is a nudge to kill them. Eliminating all of the feathered pests allows progress to the next stage.

Further into the game there are more varities of murderous birds and more methods available to you to get at the bananas, such as a balloon pump which lets the monkey float up to the top of the screen, or a body of water which you must dive down through to reach the bananas at the bottom.

Though Bubble Monkey Bros is a fun little homebrew, it isn't without its flaws. There's no music, just generic 'gurgling', which becomes irritating very quickly.

The controls are a bit slack too. For instance, to climb up the screen you use the up-arrowed tiles, but you can walk over a tile several times while mashing the 'action' button before the game seems to realise what you want to do.

At other times it's overly sensitive and you can be shot up to land on another tile that fires you up again into a killer bird, which is frustrating. Just jumping without the need to stand on 'up' tiles would have been better - which is the case deeper into the game.

Nevertheless, there is fun to be had and a two-player mode adds to the playability. Bubble Monkey Bros also gets a nod of approval for its farting monkey, as the current gaming scene is devoid of flatulent simians - something I'm sure we can all agree is a complete tragedy.

What a frustrating game! Graphically and sonically functional - there is no music - and moving your ape around to collect the bananas is a pretty unforgiving experience which will result in many a Quickshot 2 joystick getting broken in game rage.

Avoid really - just an AGD curiosity.

Control Keys: Fixed
Keyboard Play: Often unresponsive
Use Of Colour: Bright and visually appealling
Graphics: Basic graphics but nicely detailed sprites
Sound: Irksome noise
Skill Levels: 1
Screens: 9
General Rating: Basic fun