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Spikey Harold, a superbly animated hedgehog, has to prepare for hibernation, and as is usual for hedgehogs, he must fill up by eating as much as he can. In this game there are 57 items, one from each of the cave locations to be negotiated.

Yep, this is another Manic Miner clone and the usual plethora of creatures plus conkers, sulphur clouds, bouncing balls and periscopes float, bounce and zoom around to defeat you by removing one of your lives.

On the positive side, there are coins which will give you extra lives if collected (you start with 19 and you'll need them!), and wine glasses whch makes Spikey drunk for that screen.

The final problem in Spikey's way is the time limit of 24 hours in which to eat the grub and get back to his home cavern before the frost gets him. The standard is as high as in any game of this type, with large, well-animated characters, bright colours with minimal colour clashes, fair sound and challenging screens that are negotiable with perseverence.

Options for using Kempston joystick or the keyboard are provided and, because the latter has a redefinable key option, the AGF/Protek protocol will also function for joystick control.

Playing the game proved that time and a multitude of variations do not lessen the addictiveness of this style of program. I found it quite difficult to actually get started but, once the initial problems were solved then the desire to go further was rather strong. In fact, I rather suspect that the only reason this is priced in the budget bracket is because of the unoriginality of the theme.

Worth every penny for newcomers and old hands alike.