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Once upon a time, in a magical world called 3D Filmation, a brave adventurer called Ultimate set out on a mystic quest into the land of Mysterious Happenings And Dodgy Deals, where he was eaten alive by US Gold. Nothing was heard from Ultimate for many moons. Then, one day ...

Ahem. Sorry about that. Ultimate, after spending many moons in its Leicestershire hidey hole, has brought out a game that's, well, Ultimatish, if you get my drift. Bubbler's realy a cross between Bobby Bearing - itself an Ultimate-cum-Marble Madness derivative - and, well, soap bubbles!

Y'see, you control a little bubble, and you move it in the usual Ultimate way - forwards, backwards, left or right on a 3D grid. The graphics are wonderful, with a similar screen layout to Martianoids - the game in the middle, the info on the outside. Naturally there are no game instructions, just a list of the usual 'features' (3D scenario, cork display, automatic collection feature and so on and so forth) that we always seem to get with Ultimate games. Obviously, I thought to myself, the idea is to collect things, so off I went.

I soon found out that it's remarkably easy to die, and after my fifteenth death I decided to do something about it. In short, I went totally psychopathic and started shooting anything in sight. This worked, and the nasties didn't kill me - they barely had the time! But I was so absorbed with killing them that I forgot where I was going and fell off, and had to restart the game!

Movement and scenario are typically Ultimate, and the music is as lively as you'd expect. What's more, the graphics are excellent, every inch what you'd expect from a company with a reputation like Ultimate's. Still, it's not as good as its previous games, and the few people who haven't given up hoping that the company will produce another winner of the standard of Sabre Wulf, Knightlore or Alien 8 will be disappointed. Let's hope Ultimate does return again to its original form soon.