WHEN penguins are not jumping off icebergs for David Attenborough, they spend their time hunting snow bees. If you have never heard of snow bees, it is probably because the penguins are very good at killing them. That peculiar ecological cycle is demonstrated in a new game from Profisoft, a West German software company.
In Pingo you are the penguin, inhabiting a maze of ice blocks. The deadly snow bees will kill you if you touch, but they can be destroyed by pushing blocks of ice at them. Pushing the blocks of ice alters the configuration of the maze, so there is scope for strategic thinking as well as quick reactions in the game.
The graphics have a workmanlike chunkiness about them. New screens involve more bees, so the game rapidly develops into a considerable challenge.