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This game deserves a few percentage points in its favour just for the inlay cover design, possibly the most vivid and accurate description of a 'Panic' game ever seen!

Sheer Panic is a conventional 'Panic' with five floors, the bottom one of which is undiggable. Your man carries a very long shovel with which to dig his holes into which, hopefully, the three monsters encountered on the first screen will fall. As is customary, monsters getting out of holes turn another colour and then have to be knocked through two holes, or even three holes in a row. The game is played out against a background of falling oxygen. Between lives as well as games, the layout of the ladders is changed.

Control keys: 6/7 left /right, 8/9 up/down
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: responsive, but Sinclair keys are not the best arrangement
Use of colour: good
Graphics: fair to good
Sound: very good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3

'This is a fairly typical version of Panic. The graphics are very simple and the game is unexciting - not a patch on the original. Basically, I did not like it.'

'There are quite a few versions of 'Panic' now for the Spectrum, but none match up the quality of this one. The keyboard is very responsive, there is a good use of colour and the graphics are fast, smooth and the sound is great. The monsters are incremented by two with each screen successfully completed. All I can say is that this is the best 'Panic' for the Spectrum with all the features of the arcade original. A very active game.'