Throw away your cue and pick up a joystick to battle it out on the green baize of your monitor. Just in case you've never played snooker before I'd better explain the rules. Snooker is played on a table with six pockets, one at each corner and one halfway down each of the long sides. There are fifteen red balls in a triangular shape on the table and six colours that range in points value from two to seven. Reds are worth one point each. There's also a white ball that you strike with the cue and this is supposed to hit one of the other balls.

The idea is to pot a red ball followed by a colour until all of the reds have gone off the table. As long as you pot the right coloured ball then your go continues. If you pot a colour and there are still reds left on the table it is replaced, it's also replaced if you pot it out of sequence when there are no reds left. The colours have to be potted in the sequence yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black.

On-screen you get an overhead view of the table with the balls all over the place. At the top of the screen is power meter, spin indicator and information window. A cursor is moved around the screen which is used to determine the ball's path. Spin and power are then adjusted to see what happens after you hit the ball and then the shot is taken. That's about it for the mechanics of the game.

The graphics are colourful and you can tell which ball is which. Sound is limited to the collision of balls and a beep when a foul is committed.

Computer snooker has never struck me as being very exciting, but at least in this case you get a computer opponent. I still think it can only be recommended to snooker fans, but then there are a lot of them about.

Beat the computer on average difficulty.

For those of you playing in green, the blue is the dark green one behind the slightly lighter green one and next to the very light green one.

Graphics 43%
P. Easy to identify all the balls in colour.
N. Animation is a little flickery at times.

Sonics 9%
N. Beep and ping is all you get.

Grab Factor 46%
P. Novice level gives you opportunity to practice for later levels.
N. Snooker on computer is not one of the most exciting games ever.

Staying Power 47%
P. Three levels of computer opponent.
P. You can also play against somebody else, or even solo.

Overall 51%
P. You cannot be serious, that ball was in!
N. If haven't already got a snooker game then at a budget price it's good value.