A Whirlinurd is known to its friends as a Nurd. It is a little creature with helicopter blades on its head and it lives in a dangerous world of mazes. Whirlinurds are an example of one of nature's magpies, the ultimate consumer snapping up anything that takes their fancy.

Wherever the Nurd goes there are creatures intent on preventing him from getting the television sets, candlesticks, spectacles and other such desirable objects which litter his landscape. The most common enemy is a bouncing eyeball which appears to be a gregarious creature, often found bouncing up and down in large groups. Slightly less common are the snakes which dash backwards and forwards across many of the higher level screens. Other high level problems include moving force fields, live terminals and pulsating nodules.

Using a joystick you can move the Nurd left and right and the fire button switches on his rotor blades lifting him up off the ground. In tricky situations a boosted lift can be achieved by pushing the stick forward at the same time as pressing the fire button, but this facility can only be used once in each screen.

Some of the screens require you to find keys which open walls in the maze allowing access to trapped objects but this also releases whatever terror may be lurking inside the compartment.

Whirlinurds will not extend the limits of CM programming but it does give a degree of enjoyment and I found myself wanting to play on to see what the next screen had in store. However, this is not one of US Gold's greatest games.

E.D.