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All-American football hero Harry Johns and his beloved girlfriend Conny have been trapped on an island by Dr Graves - a psychotic surgeon who obviously went to the same medical school as the Frankenstein family.

The good Doctor has been busy conjuring up the eponymous scary monsters, and all of the buildings on the island are inhabited by them. Each piece of residence is heaving with mummies, ghosts, werewolves, vampires and witches - with Boris Karloff lookalikes also abounding in profusion.

The island is displayed from an overhead viewpoint, with Harry appearing as a tiny figure to be guided around the landscape.

Harry can enter any building, be it a castle, hall or church, by simply moving towards its doorway. Inside, the screen displays a side-on view, and as Harry tip-toes along, monsters appear, causing our hunky hero all sorts of bother. Contact with one of the monstrosities sends Harry reeling back and his energy is diminished accordingly. He defends himself by firing bolts at the offending beasts, and he also carries the monster equivalent of a smart bomb, where a wave of the hands exorcises the whole screen of the advancing ghosts.

At the bottom of the screen, there are six portraits of sleeping monsters: a witch, a mummy, a werewolf, frankenstein, a vampire and a hunchback. All are randomly concealed in buildings around the island and have to be destroyed if Harry is to escape the clutches of the evil Doctor. Monsters are destroyed by finding the correct weapon (hammer and stake for the vampire and so on) and taking it to the creature's location - a gravestone slides over the monster's picture to signal its demise.

Thank goodness it's not very often that I see games as bad as this. The only thing decent about Scary Monsters is its graphics.

Otherwise, there's nothing of note. Even though I tried, I found no enjoyment in the gameplay - it's far too hard and frustrating. The only scary thing about this is the fact that people could possibly shell out hard-earned loot for it - steer well clear.

Once again Odin have presented us with some incredible graphics - only to follow them up with abysmal gameplay. Whenever Harry is hit by a hostile, he gets bounced all over the screen from monster to monster, with his energy diminishing all the time.

In many cases, this proves fatal to the Yank hero, and with only three lives to play with, completing the game appears unlikely. Just to add the finishing touch, our review copy also had the unnerving tendency to self-abort during play - especially when I was doing well.

If only Odin's artistic efforts could be channelled more constructively, Firebird would have a sure-fire winner on their hands. As it stands, Scary Monsters is nice to look at - but too frustrating to be a worthy purchase.

Presentation 72%
A choice of definable keys or joystick - but the map section is time-consuming and more or less unnecessary.

Graphics 84%
Superb interiors and animation, while the perfunctory exterior screens are a little on the bland side.

Sound 67%
Boppy title tune and adequate, although somewhat grating sound effects.

Hookability 38%
The immediate difficulty of the game is merely a sign of things to come.

Lastability 41%
The repetitive nature of both the gameplay and graphics lends itself to the heavy eyelids syndrome.

Overall 46%
A beautiful, but ultimately tedious, arcade game.