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Just looking at the screenshots on the cassette inlay, I didn't think that Rockman was going to be a particularly good game, but after a few attempts it turned out to be one of those games that is simple, yet curiously addictive.

The format of the game is quite old fashioned, a cross between Rockford's Riot and the Digger type game. You control a small mole-like figure who must find his way around various screens in order to collect mushrooms to feed on. The layout of the screens consists of platforms and ledges made out of boulders which you can run across, and also dig through to reach mushrooms in inaccessible areas. Connecting these ledges are a number of shafts which allow the Rockman to climb up and down, and here and there are areas marked by skulls which represent poisonous toadstools. Contact with these is fatal (surprise, surprise) as are the floating ghost-like faces that follow your progress around the screen.

It all sounds pretty dreary, doesn't it, like a cast-off Jet Set Willy clone? And yet I found Rockman surprisingly enjoyable and addictive. The way in which the screens are arranged has been quite well designed, so that collecting the mushrooms isn't quite as simple as it at first seems, but the first few mushrooms on each screen are quite easily gathered and this encourages you to persevere and collect them all. I have to admit that I was quite surprised to find how many times I went back for 'one more go' just to try and complete a particular screen.

The graphics, though unspectacular, are quite competent and the Rockman makes a constant stepping sound as he moves which manages not to be irritating and adds a little polish to the game.

At first I thought the game might become repetitive quite quickly since you have to go through the same sequence of screens over and over in the early sections of the game, but as you get onto the higher levels there is a password system that allows you immediate access to specific screens. This is a sensible idea and helps prevent the game from getting boring.

Rockman is by no means an outstanding game, but it is good, simple fun, and at such a low price I really can't find anything about it to criticise.