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'Experience that sinking feeling' says the press release. Somehow I get the feeling that this simple message is a bit of a double entendre in so far as (a) that sinking feeling has something to do with you going to the bottom of the sea in search of the Titanic, or (b) me sinking back in my comfy reviewer's chair saying 'Oh no! Why me?' almost instantly after loading.

The Titanic, sank during its maiden voyage, has been discovered. That's old news.

The wreckage can only be explored by remote control drone, slowing down exploration to a snail's pace.

Tell me somthing new. There's a great secret down there waiting to be unlocked. Vaguely interesting. A one Professor R.

M Kendrick (a.k.a. Professor Urine (s'true)) has managed to design a diving suit that enables a single peron to survive the depths. Uh oh, I'm losing interest again. You have been chosen to go down and find out whatever is to be found out.

(Sudden jolt of interest). What? To unravel the secrets of the great grey metallic hulk that lies frozen some miles below the icy waters of the Northern Atlantic (is this interesting enough for you, Al?) you first have to get to it by finding your way through a long and tortuous maze of caverns and bits of coral, avoiding things like fish and vicious plants. Once you've reached your destination, you are given a five letter password for the next level. Cute, huh?

The next level has you inside the Titanic itself looking for the mystical safe, where The Secret' is kept. As a game.

Titanic is a side on, eight way scrolling aquaphibic shoot-'emup with a little bit of arcade adventure thrown in. The only real problem is that it isn't very good, for a couple of reasons.

The graphics are appalling.

The sprites are small, poorly defined and badly animated.

The backdrops on the second level are all right, but everything does look a bit samey. The real problem with level two is that the Titanic walls are quite detailed. These, coupled with the mega-jerky scrolling, makes certain items, like sharks a bit difficult to spot.

This makes the game just a little on the unplayable side The controls are sluggish and unresponsive and the firing rate is incredibly slow. One more factor added to the unplayability level is the way the screen only scrolls when your on-screen character reaches the side of the playing area. Scratch another few points.

So. what are we left with? A nice idea, based on a fairly current theme. Plays badly, doesn't look too good either The only real bonus is that it's budget. Even so, looking at a lot of budget stuff around at the moment, being budget isn't an acceptable excuse for being sub-standard. Titanic just isn't any good. By any standards.

Poor Scuba Dive rip-off. Looks bad, plays worse.