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Slimey, a cute, frog-like character, is trapped on an asteroid belt in deep space, miles from home (aaah!). His only hope is to salvage spaceship parts from asteroid caves and construct his escape craft. These caves are inhabited by a variety of alien lifeforms who attack poor old Slimey on sight - luckily, he's armed with a laser gun.

He first finds himself on the surface of a single asteroid, and you are able to steer him around the whole belt. Asteroids are marked with arrows (which deflect him in the direction they point), skull and crossbones (he's killed on contact), a launch pad (transportation to the next belt, if sufficient parts have been collected), and mine entrances.

Inside the mines, contact with aliens depletes our amphibian's energy, shown as a pot of water - Slimey can lose all his strength three times before losing one of his three lives. A transfer function allows him to pass through solid obstacles, but if transfer is undergone while above a solid object all energy is lost.

When aliens are shot, one of seven objects can appear. A group of four yellow balls gives a banana bomb: when released, these bounce around the screen killing the aliens. A blue bubble temporarily halts aliens and turns them red and blue: touching a blue alien fills the pot, touching a red one returns the aliens to normal.

Ten blue diamonds are needed for an alien to drop a red diamond which gives access to the next cave. Red diamonds also have a smart bomb effect, instantly completing a screen when used. A map shows Slimey's position in the current mine, a door will lead you back to the surface of the asteroid, and an apple clears the screen of all hazards.

A bonus game involves the collection of frogs - all called Bertiel - from certain caves. Slimey then spits these out (ugh!) into a hole, which when full allows our hero to cross a gap and float up on a balloon for bonus points.

The thing that struck me first about Slimey's Mine was the multitude of strange samples strewn throughout the game. A hectic bout of shoot-'em-up action is based by screams and cries, belches and brief comments, all of which caused consterntion and amusement to the casual passer-by.

Not that we get many of those... But anyway... when you start playing, you don't notice the blast of noise because you're too involved in the fast and colourful collecting and shooting.

Cartoon-like characters populate this addictive game, which although only a mixture of old ideas, appears fresh and vibrant amongst most other budget products released these days. You're missing out on something special if you don't buy Slimey's Mine.

This must be one of the funniest games I've played - it's brilliant! The combination of cute, froggy creatures, some extremely silly sound effects and frenetic shoot-'em-up action kept me coming back for more.

The action is full of nice touches: the Pac-Men ghosts who scuttle about on later levels, the frog snoring in pause mode and the fantastic speech all create a great atmosphere.

The graphics aren't astounding, but the gameplay more than makes up for this, every aspect from the selection screen to dumping the rescued frogs in a pit being honed to perfection.

Ignore the other Silverbird products this month and buy this - it's one of the best budget games for a long time.

With the deluge of budget software flooding into the office this month, it's great to see a product of such quality as Slimey's Mine.

The most obvious thing is the ripping sampled sound, with a wealth of 'argh', 'oof' and 'get ready' effects belting from the monitor. The freneticism of the sound is matched by the frantic gameplay, especially when the screen is full of rampant aliens!

Even though the final objective appears rather obscure Slimey's Mine is instantly playable and very hard to put down. This little gem more than compensates for the disappointing other releases from Silverbird this month.

Presentation 93%
No loading picture, but colourful title page with brilliant Micro-rhythm-type sound utility. Excellent in-game touches, such as 'snoring' pause mode and bonus game.

Graphics 70%
Colourful and cartoon-like with some interesting visual effects.

Sound 95%
Lots of humorous high-quality sound samples.

Hookability 91%
The shoot and collect exploration is instantly playable; the sound is just the icing on the cake.

Lastability 89%
A lot of mines to explore and clear, but may become repetitive.

Overall 94%
A funny, unusual and addictive shoot-'em-up enhanced by brilliant presentation and sound. Buy it!