Life was quiet, until the mutant lobsters...

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The year is 2005, Earth has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust and the few remaining members of the human race have been forced back into an old way of life as cavemen.

Life was quiet until the mutant lobsters turned up.

In Rubble Trouble, you pit your wits and strength against ever increasing numbers of these flesh eating lobsters known as Krackats.

When the game begins you are in a maze of boulders which you can roll about to crush the crustaceans.

You may be thinking that this is just another Pengo type game, and you would be right. But there is one very clever variation.

Should you push a boulder towards a Krackat and miss it you had better be nimble, because these boulders bounce!

On many occasions an itchy trigger finger left me chewing rubble and watching another little caveman, complete with halo, floating upwards to that great gravel pit in the sky.

One by one the rocks disintegrate. This, along with the increasing level of radiation, provides the game with a time limit, bonus points being awarded for a quick clearance.

The boulders come in three types. The first are common or garden rocks. The second blue in colour, are worth 150 bonus points when crushed. Finally come the flashers, to be avoided at all costs as any attempt to roll or crush one results in a nuclear explosion.

Should you tire of this maze there are two further options. First there is the hayfield in which the maze paths are filled with illusionary boulders which can be walked through without the need to crush them, leaving a clear path behind.

By disguising the maze layout in such a way, rolling boulders and escaping Krackats can be a very risky business.

Finally comes the invisible maze, where the rocks are invisible except when rolling. Not for the novice.

Excellent graphics and good use of sound combined with a well inplemented twist of an established theme kept me at the computer until 2am.

Micro Power has got yet another winner.

Jon Revis