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I almost feel like sighing with contentment from the sheer joy of playing Krakout. It's simply wonderful and wonderfully simple.

If you were around a few years back and remember ploughing all your money into Breakout coin-op, then this is the game which will bring back those wonderful moments - and a lot more. Even if you don't remember Breakout then do yourself a favour and get your hands on a copy of this game.

The idea is very simple. The screen is made up of bricks in different patterns. You control a bat at either the extreme left or right of the screen, which just moves up and down. You serve a ball into the bricks, as the ball hits them the bricks disappear, shooting the ball off at differing angles. Destroy all the bricks and then it's on to the next screen. And in Krakout there are around 100 different layouts.

Stretching and straining your reflexes to cope with this is hard enough but there's more. Hitting some bricks can cause some very strange things to happen. For instance, one brick will elongate the bat. This is useful. Other bricks play nasty tricks - such as putting the brakes on the bat so you can't move it, others will suddenly introduce a second ball into the screen. Then there are the bricks which will blow up.

Alien monsters also suddenly appear on the screen, apparently quite harmless, just floating around and then wham! They fly off with demonic speed into the path of the ball, normally knocking past you.

There's even one alien - known as the Ogre - who appears and actually eats the ball. I must admit I've not yet encountered this beast while playing the game properly.

But I've played a cheat version of the game where you can flip through the screens until you find the home of the Ogre. He's definitely worth seeing.

There are also extra hardships you can impose on yourself.

I have only one small gripe. On the screens giving the instructions the writing is incredibly hard to read.

All in all, Krakout is an excellent and absurdly addictive game. You just won't be able to resist going for another brick in the wall.