Go down that painted trail to pleasure

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Painter is a sheer delight to play - a compulsive, fast-action game and far more refined than the usual "bang 'em, shoot 'em" arcade type.

It is hard to convey the excitement of the game in words. You simply move your man round a grid composed of rectangles, leaving a trail behind you. When your trail surrounds a rectangle it is "painted in", and you score a varying number of points.

However, while you're doing this you are pursued by a creature intent on destroying you. Your aim, of course, is to avoid that fate while achieving as high a score as you can.

On the lower levels, the beastie is relatively unintelligent and scoring is rather easy. However, once you've filled in all the scoring rectangles, you move onto a new, more complex grid, and the creature's IQ increases.

Worse still, as you ascend the skill levels, more creatures appear in pursuit. I am sure whoever thought of this game had the DTs at the time. To counter this, you can "break" the grid line to prevent them following you.

While the respite gained is only temporary, there's an immense satisfaction from using two such breaks to bottle one of the enemy up - it goes wild with frustration!

The game is beautifully designed from every angle. It is visually appeal ing, simple to learn and exceptional fun to play. One for all the family. A&F are onto yet another winner.

Margaret Turnbull