Overload is a new and enjoyable arcade game from Clares which has the rare merit of originality. For those who like scenarios with their games, there is a suitably silly one provided: Igor has booby-trapped all Professor Frank N. Stein's equipment so that, when the professor next came to use the machine, it caused an overload producing all sorts of strange but nasty creatures. For his blundering, Igor was put in a metal sphere and told to squash the creatures. Naturally enough he committed harakiri and left his eleven legged flea, Cheetah (that's you), to carry on for him.

All this is irrelevant to the actual play which involves manipulating a bouncing ball by influencing its height and direction of bounce in order to navigate a variety of screens and crush the monsters in the process. It is, once you get used to the controls, great fun but often frustrating. You can easily spend the whole time (the limit varies from screen to screen) trying to get one monster and fail miserably. These nasties don't actually kill you, but they are very elusive. If you get one at the wrong time it splits into two smaller and even harder to catch monsters!

It takes a long time to master even the first screen but, once you get the hang of it, the next few don't take as long. Passwords are supplied every five screens so it is infuriating if you can't clear the fourth or ninth (or 49th if you get that far). Mind you, with sixty screens you can hardly expect a different word for each. The sound is rather limited - though what there is is good - and a nice feature is the volume control.

This is an enjoyable, surprising and original game. It not quite the "mega monster experience" it boasts to be, it is still a worthwhile purchase for the keen arcade game player.