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And now, a short digression...

Old analogue TV sets were great, weren't they? One great big tuning knob, an aerial that you needed to position differently depending on the channel you wished to watch and the comfort that any problems with either could be easily remedied by whacking the top of the TV as hard as you could. Students would probably still be watching this way had the old analogue signal not been turned off. But it was - and those analogue broadcasts were lost into the ether.

Except that these signals have now arrived on El Stompo's planet, and the aliens there have a bunch of TVs that should allow them to enjoy their fix of EastEnders. Unfortunately, their TVs will only work after El Stompo has jumped up and down on each of them. Such is the charming scenario of Monument's second offering, El Stompo.

What we have here is part arcade platformer and part logic puzzle. The game has 35 screens featuring ladders and levels, patrolling aliens and the odd button, brickwork or television to stomp upon. Each screen is progressively harder, with a surprisingly colourful palette ("No colour clash!" screams the boxart which is a peculiarly Spectrumesque claim!).

The back-story give the game its charm. For British players only, it also gives the opportunity to count the number of old TV programme logs they recognise. On top of this, El Stompo is actually pretty enjoyable, dispensing with a lives or password system in favour of just presenting you with each scene in turn until you win it (rather like Angry Birds).