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Fancy skimming over the ice and flicking the puck into the opponents' net? That's what's on offer in this team game simulation for one or two players from Bug-Byte.

The rules are all well explained on the cassette inlay and the keys you need to use are displayed on the screen at the start of the game. In fact, it's a well-packaged budget-priced game.

You start with a face-off in the centre and you can see the central third of the rink. If the puck moves to either end the appropriate third of the pitch is drawn. This redrawing is rather sluggish on the Electron and makes the game seem disjointed. There is a permanent on-screen display of the score and the amount of time played.

Ice hockey lends itself to being a computer game. It is only six-a-side and has strict rules about player positions, so the number of characters moving on the screen is limited and should make for a fast game. Also, a small puck is used rather than a large wall which should help with the speed of drawing.

The playing rules are simple too. There are no throw-ons to cope with as the ball bounces off side walls, and in this well behaved version there are no fouls or sin bins.

With so many advantages over football, it's a pity that this game does not really work. The players do not glide gracefully over the ice, but jerk about in a manner that would cause real players to fall over on the ice.

There seems to be no way of giving the puck a satisfying thwack up to the other end of the rink. Instead, you can only push it a small distance in front of you.

One of your worst problems is making sure that your computer-controlled team-mates do not get the puck. If they do, they run up to the goal and spend the rest of the game not scoring and not passing.

As you try your hardest to wrest the puck away from them, the noises (hardly sound effects) will drive you to distraction. You'll wonder where the music promised on the cassette inlay has got to: the suggested keys for music on and off have no effect.

If the opposition get the puck they will run it up the pitch and spend ages failing to score or pass. Once again the noises are intolerable and the best route out is to quit the game by pressing the ESCAPE key.

It will be small consolation to Electron owners to know that if they load the same code into a BBC Micro, all the problems vanish and the game becomes fast, smooth, musical and much more fun.

I really wonder if Bug-Byte checked Ice Hockey on the Electron. I feel sure the company can't have intended to let such a poor game tarnish its reputation.

Rog Frost