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Quite honestly I'm at a loss. Mystified. Confused. Stumped. How the hell do you get off the first screen of this game?

Since the latest offering from the tight-lipped mystery men from Ashby de la Zouch arrived in the office, I've kept returning to it every few days. And I get absolutely nowhere. I've watched other people try to play it. And guess what? I've still not seen anything other than the opening screen.

There may be a whole new game lurking in my computer, but I can't find it. So this "review" will tell you what the game's about and what happens on the first screen.

The evil wizard Vadra controls the ancient city of Irkon. The inhabitants have been imprisoned and youo have been turned into a blob. Huge bottles have been constructed with ooze bubbles - which turn into strange mutant creatures. Hence the title Bubbler.

But life's not all bad for you as a blob. You can move and spit fire globules at your foe.

Around the city are magic corks, hidden under trapdoors. Find all these corks, to bung in the bubblers and Vadra's powers will be ended.

The game is - as far as I can judge - like Marble Madness and Spindizzy to look at, all ramps, causeways and platforms over which you must guide the blob. The starting point of the game is a platform with what appear to be two exit ramps, up which you must travel to exit the location. The trouble was that I just couldn't get any control over the blob. It seemed to have a mind of its own and a sense of direction which kept taking it off the platform and into the black void beneath. Losing lives as quick as I did meant Game Over coming up with tedious regularity. I did actually manage to get halfway up each ramp but just couldn't make it to the top. Very frustrating.

Meanwhile a strange array of creatures floated through the screen including crabs, mystery bubbles and various spinning objects.

Bubbler looks nice, sounds intriguing and is certainly challenging.