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Next time your house gets washed away by a flood, or a landslide demolishes a sizable part of the neighbourhood, don't go blaming God or the public spending cuts - it could be that someone has been messing around with the elements.

In Chameleon, someone has been messing around with the elements - and things have got to be put right again. Only the Chameleon, made as he is from flux, can venture into the realm of Limbo and sort out the elements. But first, he has to pass through four realms - those of the elements Fire, Earth, Water and Air.

Chameleon visits the realm of each element in turn, attempting to locate a hidden exit point which allows him to escape and progress. The landscape scrolls left or right, following Chameleon as he explores. Deadly elementals float in the sky, and demons move along the ground, attempting to drain Chameleon's energy. To defend himself, Chameleon can jump or duck, or fire missiles at the elements and demons by pressing the fire button and moving the joystick in the appropriate direction.

However, to destroy the marauding elements and demons, the correct form of missile has to be used. Holding the fire button and moving the joystick down three times summons the four elements, allowing Chameleon to change his missiles into a different form. Energy is also lost by stepping into one of the pools on the landscape, or through firing missiles. Fortunately, his energy level can be topped up by shooting a demon with the correct missile, and collecting the power left behind.

If the location of the hidden exit is passed, a tell-tale ditty plays. However, if the Chameleon is to progress to the next level, he must first 'prime' a power point (represented by a stick in the ground) at a particular time of day. There are four separate times, with the current time indicated by the colour of the sky. On the first level, the Realm of Fire, Chameleon doesn't need to activate a power point - he can simply find the exit. On later levels though, Chameleon has to pass one, two and three power points before the exit becomes primed.

When Chameleon has activated the exit, he has to dispose of enough demons to allow him to leave. Four element indicator bars are situated at the bottom of the screen, and shooting demons reduces each one respectively. However, a demon must be shot with the correct element, otherwise the shot either mutates it into another element or has no effect. For example, shooting Fire flux at an earth demon turns it into fire, which can then be destroyed by shooting it again.

After completing the fourth level, the Realm of Water, Chameleon passes into the limbo realm. Here, there are no demons - so the only way to escape is by quickly finding the power points and exit, then shooting elementals.

Chameleon gets three days to complete each realm, scoring a bonus at the end of the level, depending on the number of days left. An extra life is obtained every 10,000 points.

Chameleon is very rewarding if you can be bothered to persevere. At first this may seem like a lot of trouble - but believe me, it's worth it.

I get the impression that Electric Dreams have misunderstood or misinterpreted the programmer's instructions - the inlay is a joke, and a very confusing one at that, it takes time to understand what's going on and how to progress - which is why it would be so easy to slag Chameleon off.

This is unfortunate, as Electric Dreams have a superb game here which is heavily let down by poor documentation. Still, this review may offer some help...

Initially this looks like a right load of rubbish, but if you sit down and use your brain instead of your joystick it soon becomes apparent that it's pretty neat.

The instructions don't offer much in the way of help, leaving the player to work out what's going on, but that's part of the fun of playing it. The graphics aren't exactly stunning, but they are crisp and contain some very pretty effects.

The sound is neat too, with some excellent spot effects interacting with the action to give clues as to what's going on.

If you want an original shoot-'em-up which requires a fair bit of playing until it's 'sussed', then give this a go - it's a very enjoyable experience.

First things first, disregard the inlay - most of it's waffle, and the 'how to play' section is totally unclear. But once you've worked out what everything does, this game is pretty good. Fast thinking, quick reactions and quite a bit of 'strategy' are called for.

The spot effects are excellent and really help you to play the game. The screen scroll is accomplished well, comprising several layers of parallax. The plot is bizarre, but works rather well - as long as you're patient and prepared to sit down and work things out.

Presentation 84%
Incomprehensible instructions but good in-game presentation.

Graphics 81%
Crisp, colourful and imaginative sprites and backdrops.

Sound 83%
Reasonable tune, but neat spot FX.

Hookability 76%
Initially confusing due to the uninformative instructions, but playable nevertheless.

Lastability 84%
The action is addictive and rewarding - once you get to grips with it.

Value For Money 77%
A mite expensive, but worthy of consideration.

Overall 84%
An unusual, imaginative, and surprisingly compulsive shoot-'em-up.