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Monty Mole became a national hero during the Miners' Strike. His coal-pinching antics brough him, and Gremlin, untold fame and fortune in the form of substantial coverage on News At Ten and the considerable sales which followed. Never ones to miss out on a spot of money-making, the Sheffield softco released two more games based on the lovable earth-tunneler; Monty On The Run and Auf Wiedersehen Monty. Everyone thought that, once Monty had reached his island paradise of Moledavia, he would be left in peace, but no siree. He's back, only now he's a Supermole, complete with cape!

And how has this come about? An alien race, overrun by an enemy force controlled by the infamous Five Guardians, has been monitoring Monty's escapades over the years and has decided that, given the correct powers, he can overthrow the invaders and return the planet to normality. Never one to turn down a plea for help, Monty accepts and, in his new persona, sets out to defeat those baddies and receive a big wad of dosh in the process. What ensues is over 200 screens of platform antics spread across five distinct levels, in which Monty must annihilate the intruders using his fists and, should he find them, bombs and a bazooka.

If any of the enemy should come into contact with him, Monty will lose energy; luckily, strewn across the planet are cans of worms which, when picked up, add to our hero's strength bar. Also to be found are shops where Monty can purchase useful items - should he find enough cash to pay for them!

I loved the original Monty games, and was looking forward to this turbo-charged version very much - but unfortunately it's turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. My main gripe is that it's incredibly frustrating.

Take the collecting of bombs, for instance; there isn't any sort of indication as to how many you are actually carrying and, if you walk into an area expecting to blow up the baddies and suddenly find that you're out of explosives, you're more than likely too be killed.

Also, you can pick up weapons such as bazookas and blast away to your heart's content. However, stray too far away from the place where you collected your gun and it mysteriously disappears, leaving you with only your feet to defend yourself.

Impossamole looks and sounds very jolly, but at the end of the day it just doesn't have anything special to make it stand out.

The number of decent, cheap platform games on the Spectrum makes it tough for this version of Impossamole to make a good impression. It suffers from obscure, blobby sprites and like the ST version, it's frustratingly difficult from the outset.