Evil, nasty and horrible. That's what Mr Mephisto is. You see, in this game you're trying to make your way to the final resting room of life (heaven to you). Now you'd think that would be nice and easy, but it isn't. No whizzily growing wings, loafing about on clouds, strumming your harp and giving the halo an occasional buff, oh no. Getting to heaven is a tricky job.

What you have to do is guide your little man from the bottom of the screen up the stairs in the centre to the top right hand corner, where a halo resides. If he picks it up, then a door at the top of the stairs flashes and he can go through to the next screen.

Now that all sounds easy, but it isn't. Mr Mephisto's minions are strolling around the stairs and one touch from them means death, so avoiding them is paramount. On later screens, Mr Mephisto has been really mean and built several exits with several flights of stairs to each, but only one is the safe way out, So choose correctly or die. Invisible staircases make appearances later on and eventually on the final screen old Nick makes a guest appearance. If you manage to ring the bell on this screen then the good old pearly gates will open and you'll finally make it to heaven and live happily ever after.

Mr Mephisto is quite an old game, and it certainly shows. Despite the budget price, it isn't budget quality and I wouldn't consider it a worthwhile investment. The graphics and sound aren't too hot (although the subject matter is!) and the game itself is lacking in variety. It is also frustrating and consequently it isn't much fun to play.

Mr Mephisto looks like the sort of game that was out and about several years ago. Apart from having terribly simplistic gameplay (dodge the nasties and collect the object sort of thing), the graphics are awful. The main sprite looks like it's been brought up on low-cal soup all its life, and the demon sprites are like demented hunchback cripples on the rampage with pitchforks. Achieving the tasks set down is very difficult because the character moves so slowly and the stairs are so thin, and consequently it soon becomes totally frustrating. If you want a good cheapo game then look around, as there are a lot better than this.

Presentation 72%
Different skill options and the game can be played at several speeds.

Graphics 29%
Dated, undernourished sprites and boring backgrounds.

Sound 38%
Dull, unimaginative title tune and spot FX.

Hookability 23%
The boring gameplay and difficulty of the game soon gives way to frustration.

Lastability 20%
Only six screens of boring action... yawn!

Value For Money 31%
Cheap, and quite rightly so.

Overall 24%
There have been better at a quid less.