I can pay no greater compliment

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Returning Plutonium Plunder by Micropower to the editor is going to be a sad wrench - the game is fascinating.

It is an arcade game on the general lines of Pengo. The object in this version is to push three cannisters of plutonium into a safe-room at the end of a vault.

This is done by controlling a little man who goes dashing round the vault pushing the cannisters - and a dangerous time he has of it.

Firstly, they are mixed in with large numbers of hexoid pods, six-sided objects that have to be pushed aside or drilled through. Secondly, there is a posse of bad-tempered gnomes out to get you.

They follow you around with the dogged persistence of a debt-collector with a grievance, and if they catch you, it's back to square one. The only way to deal with them is to flatten them by pushing a pod or cannister over them.

Thirdly, after a certain time, a couple of radio-active neuclids burst through their containing shields and start chasing you round, while arrow-like megapods whizz through the side walls and attempt to place you in an early grave.

As if this wasn't enough, some joker has electrified the walls, so that touching them results in your little man lighting up like Blackpool illuminations, before shuffling off this mortal coil.

The net result of all this is a game that is fast, furious and completely addictive. The graphics are excellent - even on my clapped-out old TV - and there is good use of sound and colour. The game can be played with a joystick or with the keyboard, and if you dislike the choice of control keys, a facility for re-programming your own choice is provided.

It doesn't get boring either. I've got as far as level five - each is different, calling for a change of tactics.

Unfortunately, by the time you read this, the editor will be playing with my review copy in his luxury penthouse at Europa House.

Not to worry, I've decided to go out and buy my own copy - what greater compliment can a reviewer pay a game than that?

James Bibby