Fun down the drains

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In Drain Mania, the latest release from Icon Software, you playthe part of Theodore, a very athletic head-banger who loves to explore the local drain system.

Your aim is to collect coins that are dropped from above, and eventually escape. While doing this you are hampered by three creatures. Inky, Pinky and Dinky, and various other nasties.

To start, there's a nice set of scrolling instructions accompanied by some cheerful music.

This is followed by a menu to define your movement keys before the main game loads, still with the interrupt driven music playing.

There is an option to turn it off and you'll only leave it on once, believe me.

The idea is to kill all the creatures on each screen in order to progress to the next.

To do this, you position yourself on the level beneath them and jump up, dislodging one of the flexible slabs.

Depending on the creature - Dinky needs three hits, Pinky needs two, and Inky only one - this stuns them, and you have a short time to run over them while they are defenceless.

If you are too slow, they recover but are even more powerful.

Eventually, when you accumulate enough points, you get a bonus screen of coins to be collected before a timer runs out.

Then it's on to a slightly different level for more Inkies. Pinkies and Dinkies and their deadly sidekicks the water-drop and the fire-ball.

On the whole I quite like the game. It has large colourful sprites and there are some nice touches that make it a little different.

Peter Clifton