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Heckymick! Lord knows why, but your mates have been kidnapped and are now being held in an underwater cavern. There's no hope of paying a ransom so it's up to you to swim down and rescue them.

Being all man and not a mutant wereguppy, you can only hold your breath for a certain amount of time, before the need arises to surface and catch the odd lungfull. Finding an air tank increases this ability, allowing you to swim underwater for longer periods.

Other useful items can be found littering the waters, such as keys (opening blocked tunnels), bubble power (enabling you to shoot creatures), extra speed and a monster suit (to scare off the creatures).

Between levels, a deadly killer shark must be bubbled to death, then it's on to levels which have less open surface, trickier caves and faster fish to dodge, before your 'buddies' can be saved.

The opening music of Scuba Kidz is quite jolly, with some appropriate 'bubbly' sounds breaking through at times. This compounded the feeling of disappointment when I saw the game graphics - I mean, pink cave walls? Do me a favour!

However, perseverence reaped its own rewards, and behind the lurid front that it projects, the game is actually rather playable. Whether or not it would cut it full price is questionable, but as a budget release I suppose you could do worse.

When playing Scuba Kidz (one of Silverbird'z gamez), I couldn't help but be put off by the tacky graphic appearance. The scenario certainly isn't any better, and on face value, the gameplay appears outdated and boring.

If you ignore the superficialities, guiding the diver along the seabed, bubbling fish to death (strange!) and hunting out keys and sandbacks soon becomes enjoyable. Being able to surface to take a few lungfulls of air is a nice idea, but only having one life is rather mean.

Scuba Kidz won't set the budget market alight, but it's far from the damp squib it at first seems to be.

Presentation 53%
Amusing messages at times, but not much else to amaze.

Graphics 55%
Gaudy backdrops, but the sprites are adequately designed and animated.

Sound 78%
Good atmospheric tunes, and bubbly sound effects.

Hookability 61%
The over-bright colours put you off at first...

Lastability 69%
...but there is quite a playable game in there.

Overall 66%
An amusing little item, and worthy of investigation at the price.