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It ain't no fun being a pink ball trapped in a strange alternative dimension inhabited by all manner of dangerous creatures, but that's exactly the predicament you'll find yourself in should you buy Helter Skelter, the new release from Audiogenic.

Helter Skelter sure is one strange game, so much so that it's difficult to categorise it. It's not an arcade adventure, and it's certainly not a shoot-'em-up, so what in fact is it?

I'd better explain. You control a lively bouncing ball whose job it is to bounce around various levels bumping off the assorted nasties who roam the platforms and levels that each screen is composed of. But you can't just bounce on any nasty. No siree. You have to kill the right nasties in the correct order, and to help you do this, the specific nasty that you have to squash is indicated by an arrow that appears above his head. By landing on the nasty's head, you cause him to explode, and the next target is indicated, and so on until you clear the screen.

To make things just a bit more difficult, there's a penalty for popping the wrong nasty. Should you do this, either by accident or due to your sado-masochistic tendencies, the nasty splits into two smaller ones, thus enlarging your workload. Keep on being careless and there'll soon be thousands of little nasties gallavanting about the screen!

As if that isn't enough, each level carries a painfully short time limit (typically about 20 seconds each) and if this runs out before you complete the screen, you lose a life and the screen resets, putting back all the nasties. Fortunately power-up capsules appear from time to time offering extra lives and powers if you collect them, but remember, as the time limit is so short, the nasties always have priority.

The control of the ball is weird to say the least. "Just imagine you're slapping the ball with your hand," the man said, stifling a giggle, as I bounced around the screen helplessly. After a while, I picked up the control method and was soon gaining passwords to the later screens. Helter Skelter is a very jolly game indeed.

There's certainly enough gameplay to keep gamers at their joysticks/mice for a long time, but you'd better buy a hairnet 'cos by the time you get to the later screens, you'll want to pull most of it out!