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CAT BURGLAR IN SOMNAMBULISM THEFT SHOCKER

Feline star of many a cartoon, the Pink Panther never seems to have much luck. Due to his excessive lifestyle (he only drinks pink champagne) he's currently broke. So the oddly-coloured cat burglar takes the drastic decision to get a job as a butler, working for the filthy rich.

Of course, he doesn't plan to keep his light claws to himself. No way, Jose - he aims to steal as many valuable items as he can during the night. There's just one problem - his master is a somnambulist (no, I don't know what it means either). (' Sleepwalker', use your dictionary -Ed.) If he should bump into a wall or other solid object, the boss awakes and catches the naughty panther pink-handed.

You control the puce pussy (it's a sort of red, not the stuff you throw up after a ba-a-aad party) as he carefully guides his sweet-dreaming master around the mansion by physically turning him around or by jingling a bell. And grabbing valuable objects on the way.

Other tricks up his fur are a variety of objects in his possession which can be inflated and dropped. These include a Pink Panther lookalike, catapults and boards to guide the master round obstacles. Also wandering around the house is that diligent detective, Inspector Clouseau. He can be dealt with by positioning an inflatable hole (honest!) in his path.

The idea of inflating objects sounds intriguing, but in reality the game's frustrating and unplayable. The slightest mistake causes the sleepwalker to wake up, ending the game. Worst of all is that you never have enough time to experiment with the positioning of objects, so progress is very much a trial and error affair - an extremely frustrating one at that.

PHIL ... 37%

THE ESSENTIALS Joysticks: Kempston, Cursor, Sinclair Graphics: garish backgrounds and sloppy sprites Sound: awful effects and no tunes!

'This game is a faithful conversion of the cartoon Pink Panther, it's just a pity the cartoon's rubbish. The amount of clash is the first thing that amazes, but the worst is yet to come. The sleepwalker is just impossible to control. It's easy to make him change direction but when it comes to getting him across rugs in his way it's impossible. There are no tunes on the 48K or 128K machines and just the odd feeble effect.'

'The game looks horrible; the colour scheme is garish (pass the sun shades, vicar), and the rinky-dink pink himself looks little more than a small misshapen pussy cat than a large mother of a Panther. Control of the game is so difficult that it interferes with pilfering. All this adds up to a game interesting in concept, but poorly implemented. My attention quickly turned elsewhere.'