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This is the sort of game that will have you frustrated, infuriated and downright crazed but you won't be able to put it down.

In a four-level, 16-room mansion you have to collect the family heirlooms, one from each room and then get out again. Only 16 rooms, I hear you cry - it sounds easy. But unless you have great timing and lightning reflexes you will find it anything but easy. A floor plan will show you the first four rooms and you can enter any of them. Even at this stage you must take care since you can only touch the treasures and the exit signs: everything else results in your downfall.

Each room is a deathtrap of dangers lying in wait for the unwary. The most hazardous problems are pulsating pink dots which disappear for very short periods allowing you past. One slight miscalculation and the dot will appear in the middle of you and it's bye-bye Roomlord.

Monsters shuttle up and down in most rooms but they always follow the same routes and you can shoot them with a magic star. Moving barriers and the lethal walls also bar your way but room layouts are always the same.

Each level has a time limit in which you must complete all four rooms but every time you lose a life it is restored. This means that while trying to be very careful not to touch anything you also have to hurry to collect a healthy time bonus at the completion of a level.

If you can make it to the last room you will receive the Golden Trophy from it, but I guarantee there won't be many trophies had without much perseverance and cool-headed action.

The game allows you to determine the number of lords, skill, volume, players and extra lords yourself. So you can make it as hard as you like - it is never easy.

When you first look at this game, you think - Oh no, Pacman. But it'll give you a nice surprise. It's great!

The opening music puts you in a good mood to start the game, not like some of these nerve-jangling, off-key tunes found in lesser games.

Then you are given lots of options to fill. Startled by the opening screen and a strange rendition of Greensleeves, you go for the off button. But wait. Once you've entered one of the little mazes, all becomes clear.

The graphics are good, the game is very playable (even addictive!) and you're sat there for hours.

Roomlord seems to be a cross between Atic Atac and Manic Miner. To succeed, you have to be a fast mover!

I liked the idea of being able to select the number of lives that you want. This should save clever programmers messing around with Poke codes to increase their number of lives.

The sprites are large and very good and the bursts of music, although short, are varied and entertaining.