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Mastertronic's £1.99 range nearly all prove to be excellent value for money. This is no exception and will give hours of challenging fun.

In effect, there are five single screen games connected by the concept of evolution. The five ages of man take us from the ape-like cave-dwellers to the sophisticated technocrat of this modern age.

The first scene is a forest, not unlike the first screen in Chiller, and there are bananas scattered through the trees. The idea is to guide the ape around the screen, eating bananas where necessary, in an attempt to grab the biggest banana of all. The forest floor is patrolled by a Stegasaurus and a cat-like creature (sabre-toothed tiger?) and the middle air has a wandering dragonfly with a Pteradactyl swoops across the tree tops. If your ape touches one of these creatures one of his three lives will be forfeited and you will have to start from the beginning again.

The earthbound animals are easily avoided, being creatures of very fixed habits, but the Pteradactyl is a terror and will swoop down on your unwary ape.

The second screen is totally different. As hot volcanic rocks rain down from the skies you must negotiate your caveman across a maze which is bounded by a molten lava lake. One false move and evolution will end, throwing you back to the jungle scene again.

I never progressed beyond this scene and regret to say that this was principally because I could not stay alive long enough to learn the rules. One criticism I will make of the game is that the instructions are so sketchy as to be non-existent. OK, so the games only cost £1.99 but does that mean we have to forgo the luxury of instructions?

I must give special mention to the music which sounds as though it was written by the same guy who composed the music for Monty On The Run. I'm rapidly becoming a fan of his style of C64 music and it's worth playing through the game to hear the music for each scene.

The cassette inlay braggs that this game was 35 million years in the making. I believe it may take me that long to complete if the first two screens are anything to go by!