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I felt very sceptical when I started to play this - mainly because certain other crap mags thought it was really ace when it first came out at the exorbitant price of a tenner (some even thought it was, er, funny!). Fortunately, YS realised that anything David Darling claimed to be "hilariously funny" was bound to be tragic, so we gave it an appropriately crap mark. But now. for a mere three quid, perhaps it'll seem a bit better. Hmmm...

Rock Star Ate My Hamster doesn't actually have anything to do with hamsters att all - it's more to do with rock stars. The idea is to find four of the most talentless popsters available, from a group and release a crap record which everybody hates but still gets into the Top Ten and sells millions. Sounds rather like a Stock, Aitken and Waterman production to me - but, spookily enough, they're nowhere to be seen, so you have to manage the group en seul instead.

It's all quite simple though. Pick some stars from a selection of rather familiar names (like Bruce Springboard, Dross and Michael Gorge, oh-ho-ho), practise a bit and play a few 'gigs' here and there. Hopefully you'll get spotted by a record company who'll give you the chance to release a record, providing, that is, that none of your members leave or you go bankrupt. Certain things boost your chances of success - pulling the odd publicity stunt or buying your group prezzies to keep them happy.

All this boils down to a pretty lighthearted strategy game, with you pressing the right keys at the right time and getting about as many laughs out of it as reading a Labour Party manifesto (or, er, perhaps not). Of course, I didn't warm to it one little bit, but at a couple of quid (rather than the tenner which you'd previously have had to pay for it), I'm sure that someone out there will. And good luck to him.