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Picture two huge guys racing across an ice rink, knocking each other over as they try to knock a puck into the other's net and you have Skateball - a more violent, futuristic version of ice hockey.

Play against a human or computer opponent, selecting three players for your team (each has different characteristics). Apart from the goalie, only one player at a time plays for each team. The others are needed for when he gets 'bumped off' by falling down a hole or smashing into a spiky ball or any of the other numerous death traps.

The ice rink scrolls horizontally, and a radar scanner shows the whole rink and the positions of the players. When a team has scored five goals it's onto the next of 90 progressively more dangerous levels. Lose all thre men and the game's over, five bonus goals going to your opponent.

The simple go-for-goal action in Skateball is initially appealing but ultimately over-simple.

Two-player games are most fun but tend to end very quickly as it's too easy for the players to die. With one-player games, the main incentive to play on being to see the later levels which are littered with tortuous traps.

I remember playing this on the Spectrum (aaargh!) ages ago so it was quite a surprise that the C64 version has taken so long to appear.

Unfortunately it hasn't really been worth the way. Although retaining a little of the Speccy game's simple playability, it is ruined by some pretty basic graphics; simply animated sprites, bland backgrounds and a far-too-small radar scanner.

Presentation 56%
Dull front end, quite a few playing options though.

Graphics 30%
Messy sprites, bland backgrounds.

Sound 38%
Simple tune or sparse effects.

Hookability 48%
Simple gameplay has some immediate appeal...

Lastability 36%
...but soon gets repetitive.

Overall 45%
Badly presented and over-simple.