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Impossible Mission, CBS Software's latest release from the Commodore 64, is very aptly named - it's damn impossible to master, almost impossible to beat and it's absolutely impossible to turn it off.

Every computer has its "state of the art" game. The Spectrum has Manic Miner and Knight Lore and the BBC has Elite. Personally, up to now that is, I haven't seen a game originally written for the Commodore 64 which stands heads and shoulders above the rest of the C64's software, but Impossible Mission, in my eyes, is simply one of the best computer games I have ever played.

The sound effects are outstanding. Realistic running and jumping noises are produced throughout the program and Impossible Mission also contains some of the most astonishing voice synthesis ever produced on a home computer. Commands from your enemy are clear - not at all tinny or muffled by hissing - and the screams from the characters when they die are spine-tinglingly lifelike.

The graphics and animation are of the same high quality. The somersaults and gymnastic displays of the character you control will really show other software companies how their games should look and play.

To beat the game, you must search through the underground fortress of a mad professor and shut down his computer which is only hours away from cracking the entry codes to all the military computer centres and starting a nuclear war.

But to stop the computer, you must find the pieces to the electronic puzzles which are the only means of shutting down the computer's central mechanism.

Impossible Mission is one of the precious few games that any serious games player should have in his or her collection.

It would be a huge injustice if this game didn't reach number one and stay there for a very long time.