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Hey! This is the most fun I've had with my Spectrum since I used it as a frisbee. The Trap Door is truly a fun game with a capital B! For Berk, stupid. No, I'm not calling you names. Berk is the hero of this crazy caper which is the closest thing to an interactive cartoon I've ever come across.

Let's take a look at what The Trap Door is all about. Well, firstly, it's probably a good thing to note that it's a game based on a new animated TV show coming your way this autumn.

Berk lives in the lower regions of a dark and gloomy castle. Here he serves the needs of the unseen Bad Tempered Thing.

Berk slaves away completing tasks set by the Thing. usually these tasks are dirty and difficult.

Berk, a big, blue, blobby character, has two mates - Boni and Drutt. Boni is a skull and Drutt is a sort of spider-thing.

The centre of Berk's world is The Trap Door. If he opens it, lots of things happen. Monsters appear from the depths, things fall in and are lost forever - but the trap door is essential if Berk is to complete the tasks set by Thing.

In the game, Berk sets out to complete five tasks and earn a safe full of loot. Thing's commands appear on the screen one by one and you only get a limited amount of time to complete each of them.

But the game doesn't end if you fail to complete one task. You can carry on - although the results of your failure can take on rather dangerous forms! For example, a monstrosity can escape through the open trap just when you don't want it to - and it sticks around to plague you for the rest of the game.

The characters are huge and colourful, the animation is excellent and if there are any colour clashes they are so tiny as to be completely irrelevant.

The gameplay may be a bit simplistic. But when you get the fire-breathing Flamethrower chasing you while you are trying to get together a dish of Boiled Slimies for Thing, and there's a spook drifting around, and Drutt is eating all the worms, and Thing's Anger Meter is glowing, and, having a hit of the giggles, you'll suddenly realise you're having *fun*!

The Trap Door is a brilliant game - one of the most original and entertaining I've seen for ages.