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The infamous snot-gobbling alien from the outer limits of good taste is back, this time in his own video game. Gilbert has a task ahead of him...

After languishing on his home planet of Drill for the summer, he is anxious to get back to Earth to renew his contract with Tyne Tees TV, but for some inane reason best known to the Drillians, they want him to stay!

Eurgh. I think they're "green (and slimy) with envy" as it says on the box. So they rip some important bits off the Millenium Dustbin, Gilbert's spaceship, and distribute them around Drill. Gilbert has to play some video games in milk bars around the city to get clues as to where the bits are hidden.

Hmm. Not very serious about having him stay, are they? I'd have destroyed the bits of spaceship, or even blown Gilbert's brains out with a proton blaster. Crude, but more effective than sending him on this stupid quest...

Frankly, the bits in between the video games are a bit boring, and having to wander fruitlessly around the totally identical streets of the city is enough to make anyone blow snot out of their nose at mach 4. The individual games which Gil has to play to get the clues are more fun than the main game itself, albeit copies of classic games. There's an Invaders clone, a light cycles game, a target shooting game, a bat and ball game, and a version of that card game where you turn over pairs.

My main criticism of the game is that it isn't so much a problem of solving it as being good enough at the games to warrant a reward. The piece of the ship is placed at the hinted location in the game after you've completed each arcade game (as a search before playing any of the games confirmed). I even ran into a piece of the ship randomly, not knowing what it was - it was just that it hadn't been there before.

I know it's difficult to make games easy enough to finish without making them *too* hard, but giving the idea that you're meant to solve clues, when in fact there are no traps, secret passages or other locations other than those you can readily explore is a bit silly. With a stout map by your side, you should finish the game in no time.

I think Gilbert was a missed opportunity to do a really cracking bit of original game design. Instead, it's just a routine licence job. Shame.

Slightly better graphics and sound than the ST, but again the same gameplay as the C64.

Prettier graphics than the C64, but unfortunately the gameplay is the game. Fun for a while, but ultimately limited.

When all's said and done, it's just a wander and collect game, with the bonus of a couple of mini arcade games thrown in. Graphics on the C64 are colourful and smoothly animated, as you'd expect.