Marooned on the moon

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As a well-known android once said, "Life? Don't talk to me about life". In this program it's a commodity that doesn't last very long.

On first inspection, the game seems simple enough. You control Joey, an astronaut marooned inside the Moonbase whose only means of escape is to find the Doctor.

He will want payment for transpor ting you to earth in his police box, but scattered around the base are bags of gold which you can pick up as you go along.

So off you go from room to room, moving left, right, up, down, towards or away from the screen (yes, 3D graphics, folks). But then the complications start.

The Moonbase also contains the nastiest set of inhabitants since the Borgias. There's Deadly Doris, a TV set on legs, who has the unfortunate habit of turning people into frogs.

Then there's the Metal Mauler, a vicious Dalek clone, and the Green Grappler, a creature with all the pacifist instincts of a tanked-up Chelsea fan. And as if they weren't enough, there's good old Marvin, a robot with a line in conversation so riveting that you're literally bored to death in seconds.

To help you survive, you have a small supply of Hulk pills, which temporarily turn you into a rampaging green monster capable of smashing through walls. However, these don't last long, and they leave you even weaker than before.

As I said, survival isn't easy.

The game is so fast it is fiendishly difficult, but the excellent graphics make it great fun to play, and the feeling that next time I'm sure I can crack it kept me reaching for the replay button. James Bibby

James Bibby