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This is a cross between Pac-Man and a lithograph by that favourite artist of all mathematicians, Eseher, best known to games players as the inspiration for Ant Attack.

In Castle Of Gems, you must move your character, Bertie Bear, around a 3D maze collecting gems, accumulating points and avoiding such varied nasties as gem gobblers, trees, ghosts, gremlins and the deadly and invincible witches.

These monsters are particularly amusing. For example, the trees move at an incredible pace and the gem gobblers, though more ponderous, wander around seemingly unconcerned about you, then suddenly they will home in and you don't have a snowball's chance in Hell of surviving.

But you can get those gobblers by passing over them as the gems go down their transparent intestinal tracts. Timing is essential here. Other enemies can be opposed if you can find the magic hat: put it on and it renders you invincible for a time. That's when you can get your revenge on the nasty trees.

The 3D effect gives each of the mazes more than one 'level'. Bertie must therefore run up and down stairs, or stand on rising and falling platforms, to reach all the gems.

This is a strange game with a nice feel to it. The graphics are fairly good and the use of colour is quite pleasing. The trees look like trees and the gem gobblers look like nothing I've seen on this planet. The sound isn't exactly outstanding but it is satisfactory, though it's a pity it doesn't go beyond simple effects. Overall, the game is good, clean fun with some nice touches.

I really enjoyed this one, although it's enough to put you off trees for life.

But your own speed is pretty impressive so you always feel you have an even chance of surviving. The magic hat was a very nice touch, giving you a welcome breather when the going got tough. Another particularly smooth feature was the lifts which transported you to different parts of the playing area.

The various monsters are well up to MRM's usual standard, as are the rest of the graphics. With 18 different and complicated screens, this is a must for Beeb owners.

Regular arcade game players will instantly recognise this as a version of Crystal Castles. It is almost an exact replica of the original, stunning solid 3D graphics, the cute animation, slick presentation, quick key response and all the usual extra features such as freeze, quit, sound on/off and the sheer addictiveness of this game makes you want to go on playing for ever.

Sound could have been a lot more imaginative, but that doesn't ruin this excellent game.

Bertie Bear is obviously set to become the next 'cute' hero of the micro world. If this inspires sequels of a similar standard, it is definitely a good thing. It is now getting so very rare to see a genuinely addictive game with superb graphics in which you don't have to actually kill anything.

This game needs real skill to play it, although you often find yourself using the 'cheat' function to get onto the next screen.