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I'm not feeling very human these days. Every time I load up a game I seem to be a robot, and frankly, I'm worried about what this will do to my mental health.

It is not the first time I've found myself stuck in a city entirely populated by lethals who always seem to move faster than I do, and it's not the first time I've been given a very silly job to do.

This time, somebody has carelessly left sixteen very pretty, rainbow-coloured, rectangular crystals lying about in a variety of inaccessible situations, and I have to find and destroy them.

The method of destruction is surprisingly crude for this high-tech world: I drop things on them. I'm thinking of complaining to the Robot Union about job security, though. I've only got six lives, and I don't even get worker's compensation when I lose them, which is often.

Without help I'd never manage, but the new slant in this game is that help is at hand, in the form of Infra-Class Beast Mark 3 Robots, which look like little red mushrooms. You don't stand a chance of finishing the game until you learn how to program these little critters, and send them into the parts that other robots cannot reach. But don't forget to carry a spare battery! It's a good idea to go into training mode and find out how to do this before you start the proper game.

The city is a wild and wonderful place, with electrified floors, great pits that go down seven levels, teleportation tiles, one-way doors and horrid little skittering yellow things. Some of the many rooms are so dangerous that I've been taking the easy way out: dropping a bomb to clear the place then hiding until it explodes.

Extremely accurate positioning before jumping is often critical, and on this game my joystick seemed far too sensitive. You've only got to breathe on it to move one centimetre too far.

In fact, the game is tough going, and takes a long time to get into. It's a toss up whether you lose patience or gradually get involved, but once you do, you may well get hooked.

Experienced arcade adventurers will probably reach this stage, but beginners are likely to be put off.

Visually, as in most of the Edge's games, it's a rather complicated and cubic 3D. In fact, the design is reminiscent of Ocean's Batman though I wish it had Batman's save facility. Some of the rooms are so elaborately decorated that the robot you control tends to merge with the background; it can be difficult to tell exactly where you are.

The game requires a nice balance of thoughtfulness and dexterity from the player, but I have to say that the concept is a bit tired, even with the new elements of the programmable robots and the bombs.

All in all, it's packed with action and variety, but next time, please, can I be a human?