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Zere I vas, seeting in my laboratory zery, zery bored. Zere vas no excitement to my life. None of ze beeg slavering monsters hurling ze leetle cannon-balls at me. Zo! I vill create my own.

Thus the thoughts of a Professor F N Stein who sets about his evil task by collecting the parts of a skeleton.

Let's make no bones about it, this new 'arcade horror' game from PSS is sickeningly good. Not that there's any horror about it. Just a great deal of original and humorous gameplay.

There are 25 main screens in which Professor Stein must make his way around a monster-infested platform network, collecting the parts of a skeleton.

Each of these 'collection' screens is followed by an 'attack' screen which varies only slightly each time and is remniscent of Donkey Kong. The created monster is dropping cannon-balls onto the professor, who must get to the top of a set of platforms and cut the monster's power supply.

What makes the game feel different is the way the professor moves around no leaping or ladder-climbing here. Instead, he uses springs to jump up (just stand on top of one and press 'activate') and firemen's poles to get down.

There are also some delightful new hazards such as ice which causes a brilliantly-animated skid, slime which slows him down, and light bulbs which give him a two-second electric shock and cause his eyes to leap in and out of their sockets.

The more usual mobile creatures-to-be-avoided include snails, bats and man-eating pumpkins.

The interest of the game comes from having to collect the parts of the skeleton in the right order. This means you have to plan the professor's route very carefully and timing is of great importance. It's very satisfying to move along a platform, pick up a leg-bone, nip back onto a spring and then - boing! - just escape that ravenous pumpkin bearing down on you.

Each part you collect is added to the semi-assembled skeleton lying in its coffin at the top of screen. When it's complete, you have to press a plunger to bring it to life.

The game's addictiveness and large number of screens will have you glued to the keyboard for hours. Yes, Franenstein's image has been done a power of good. This is a monster hit.

No... back... back you beast... aaaaagh! Sorry about that but old Frankie is enough to drive anybody crazy - it's that good.

Endless hours are going to be spent putting skeletons together and then trying to break them up again. The basic platform game scenario of collecting items is the same but there are some delightfully original touches.

The gathering of a skeleton for the creation of a monster is a weird job and even weirder when you get to take it apart again.

The transporters and springs are great to watch and the cutest part is when you skid across the ice - now that's a wonderful piece of animation.

One of the best games released for the Spectrum this year. It's original and fun, with many new ideas which transform a fairly simple platform game into something much more.

Springs replace ladders catapulting Dr Frankenstein from platform to platform as he builds his monster.

The appropriate use of sound adds to the chilling atmosphere and the variety of screens should keep even the most cynical gamesplayer reasonably happy.

A strange game, this. At first glance, it appears fairly unexceptional but once played it proves to be refreshingly original and curiously addictive.

I found myself returning to the game again and again, yet only reaching screen four in the process. As I said, Frank N Stein is a curious little program, certainly worth taking a look at.