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Golly, chaps. Spiffing game, what? These Imagine chappies have really got it right this time.

Yes, it's the latest release from Imagine. In one giant leap for a software house, Eugene and Co. have released a war-type strategy game but have kept those pretty arcade type graphics. Those graphics are, in fact, well designed. But I don't think they really live up to Imagine's claim that they are as much as is technically possible on the machine. For my money, I prefer Ultimate. Whoops, sorry!

Anyway, chaps, this is a war strategy game. There are no fast moving meanies to zap; instead you have to move your tanks and cannons to clever positions and make sure that you are near enough to the supply ship to get some cargo when it unloads.

If all this sounds very vague and I seem to give the impression that I couldn't get in to the game very far, then you're right. The whole idea is pretty complicated and I actually spent the best part of a whole day studying the instructions in front of a Spectrum. For all my gallant efforts, I succeeded in drowning my entire regiment in the sea!

When opposing forces meet, whether by clever deployment or by accident, they will engage in combat. There's a predetermined hierarchy of which battalions are more powerful than others. Your forces will change colour if they're engaged in combat.

During play, the screen shows the playing area on a small scale. There's a 2-character wide cursor which you can move to any point and then expand that 2-character piece to fill the whole screen. It's really quite impressive. Anything which happens to be moving will do so whether you happen to be there watching or not.

The object is to destroy the enemy positions and to occupy their HQ. But I feel that this is going to take someone a long time. If you're the sort of person who likes to be able to get straight into a game once it's loaded, then this is not for you.

However, if you're fed up with zapping everything in sight from Space Invaders to Mutant Telephones and man-eating toilets then this will be good value.

Stonkers is from Imagine and runs on a 48K Spectrum. It costs £5.50.