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A game that encourages you to swap screens with your friends can't be all bad, especially when it's the latest stunner from Acornsoft.

The hero of this fungoid adventure is a Harry Sinclair lookalike sprite, whom you must guide around a series of obstacles picking or eating (I'm not sure which) muchrooms as you do and avoiding the red meanines who scamper to and fro with a mind of their own.

Magic Mushrooms is a platform game, the sort where you need to climb and ramble all over the screen as you collect points, avoid death, and work your way back to the starting position, all within a hectic 100 seconds time limit - phew.

There are nine screens and you can choose which you want to play around with. They have titles such as Fairground Fun, Non-stick Nightmare and even the Curse of the Lemmings.

This game's originality lies in the fact you can design and edit your own screens. Using one of the ready-made screens, you can move the 'part' cursor to the desired position and select the part you wish to insert from the graphic menu of fifteen items at the top of the screen. You get a good assortment too. Standard bricks are easy, but slippery customers will appreciate the ice - Torvill and Dean are in no danger with my rendition of Bolero, but out hero can cope with the aid of some nifty key controls. One of my favourites is the conveyor belt - it's slow going, rather like walking up an escalator the wrong way but if you ease up you're shot off in the opposite direction!

Getting onto higher levels is not always easy either. Ladders help but that's too simple a solution: try the trampoline, it's a classic.

Moving downwards can be undertaken in a variety of ways. There's the gravity assisted method - not to be advised, though, as you end up losing one of your three lives. However, the superb judder you get on crashing to the floor is almost worth it. It's possible to construct slides, but they are slow and meanies can stroll over and wait at the bottom for you.

The rocking platforms are quite nauseating, as is the thin ice which disappears as you walk on it.

Once you have designed your screen you can give it a test drive. Press a key and random mushrooms appear then off you go - using just three keys.

Too hard or too easy? Just re-edit to the desired result, save it and post it to your mates.

What's magic about mushrooms? A lot. It's great stuff; go out and buy it - you won't be disappointed.

Bruce Smith