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The Covenant is made up of 64 pieces of parchment which you have to recover. To do this, you also have to collect the 64 species of subterranean animal life that will repopulate your barren planet's surface.

You are supposedly the last of your race and appear as a chap in a space suit. You get about by walking and jumping or by travelling in your globe which floats about the place and is affected by gravity and inertia like a wind-blown bubble. The quest takes place in a 256 room cavern split up into sections of four and separated by volcanic passages.

Each four-room section is arranged as a box with a creature in each room. Creatures are different for each area but they all have to be caught. Also in each box are a key, a chest containing a parchment piece of the covenant and an anaesthetic. Your first task is to collect the anaesthetic which allows you to operate your stun gun on the creatures. This can only be done when you are out of the globe and walking around.

The problem is that the anaesthetic changes for different animals. The silly things don't appreciate that you are trying to help them and attack you when unstunned. The next drawback is that once they are stunned, you have to get back to the globe and pick them up before they awake.

You have an energy level which is depleted by the creatures and by moving around, both when walking and in the globe. This must not fall too low or you die and your only way to replace it is to find an energy point. Like the anaesthetics these aren't always instantly recognisable and you'll have to be out of the globe to use them. Beware of imposter points, though, since these will drain your energy. If the screen border turns blue you won't last for long.

Once the four creatures in a section are captured you can collect the parchment to further sections. To get to them you pass through a volcanic passage in which fire and molten rock are spat at you from the tunnel sides. You'll need to be in the globe since you can't jump up some of these. The fire and lava are also very energy-sapping and you'll need to time your way by them with care.

The caves are all bedecked with colourful vegetation, interesting outcrops of rock and some very cute animals. All this, along with your globe, makes the screens very pleasing indeed. Control of both the globe and jumping is touchy but you get used to it quite fast. There is some flicker on the globe's movement but not so as to make it noticeably bad.

The idea of controlling an anaesthetising spaceman is a very appealing one and the game is very well executed - even if there's an Ultimateish look to it. Graphics are unusually pretty and from the way that some of those creatures roll their eyes around it looks as though they need a good strong Mickey Finn to keep them under control.

P. Very attractive screens.
P. Puzzling element as you find out which object does what.
P. Good arcade action as you fight to control your globe and jumping.
P. Plenty of rooms and lots of creatures to stun.
P. Just the right degree of difficulty.

N. Slight flicker on globe movement.
N. Can be easy to get killed (constant saving is the only answer.)
N. Caves may become rather samey.

Anaesthetics: these tend to be like bowls of fruit or small patches of vegetation. Not as tall as most of the ordinary plants.

Keys: smaller thin objects which are a bit of a giveaway since you can't fire after picking them up.

Animals: easy to suss since they're the only other thing moving around.

Energy points: usually a similar size to plants but uncomfortably unidentifiable from energy draining points.

Chests: contain pieces of the Covenant but can't up till you've completed the other tasks.