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The Abominable Snowman, mysterious subject of Tibetan legend and myth, has been granted the ultimate accolade of a computer game of his own. In this case there is no speculation as to whether the notorious Yeti exists or not: he tramps across the title screen to assure the player of his existence. The object of this game is to catch him.

The Yeti is extremely shy, and the largest part of the quest involves travelling through uncharted territory to find the beast. Beginning in the midst of hostile oriental caverns the search moves on to counter the perils of the snowy landscape. Buddhas, invincible mini-monks, rivers of fire and mystical flying monsters impede your progress: contact with any of these means instant death.

To counter these dangers, the player is armed with the famous Lee Enfield rifle and a limited supply of grenades: extra ammunition and shields are also scattered around the environment. However, the important problem in the punishing Himalayan climate is keeping the hunter's body temperature up. Earthenware pots full of valuable nourishment have been left around the area to help.

As progress is made further into the depths of each of the four levels, the ELt on of a snow mobile becomes available. Miss the entrance to its garage, though, and the journey is continued on foot.

The end of each level brings the hunter to camp, where he can replenish ammunition and grenade supplies and grab the chance to restore his body heat before recommencing the search. Reaching the fourth level sees the Yeti come within the player's grasp. Catch him and the journey is complete. Fail and the Abominable Snowman will remain a mystery...

Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: the snowy background is a great effect, adding atmosphere and realism to the game
Sound: pathetically feeble

'Yeti is just an Exolon rip off! What Christian Urquhart has done is to copy the idea and layout of Hewson's fantastic game completely. The only real differences are the jerky animation and pathetic sound. The graphics look great but they move around the screen so poorly that they soon become annoying. Colour is used well on the fire and some of the nestles, but other objects in the game are all the same colour and become boring after a while. The way the score and amount of ammunition is displayed on screen is also terrible: if you want to quickly check on how many bullets you've got left it's impossible to work out which figure refers to what! If you've already bought Exolon then you've done the right thing because although they look alike, Exolon is ten times better.'

'I must admit that the idea of a Yeti hunt in a game is quite novel - well I for one haven't heard of it before. Chasing the Yeti across the frozen wastes of Tibet is fun, especially as the route is filled with many dangers. These include large spikes, gun turrets and a multitude of aliens that whizz around the screen causing a great nuisance. Graphically the game is good, with some nicely drawn and animated obstacles - especially the large Buddha statues that spit lightning bolts at you. My only gripe is that the game is hard to play, and many of my early attempts hardly took me further than the first couple of screens; I feel that this may put some people off very quickly. Okay, the game isn't anything special - basically a shoot and collect 'em up - but it is fun to play.'

'Yeti is very reminiscent of Exolon, even down to the effect of some of the explosions. What saves this clone from obscurity Is the unusual scenario, cleverly portrayed in some very colourful graphics. The pagodas and pillars of the Tibetan environment are atmospheric, and a lot of the game's appeal stems from the elusive figure of the shambling Yeti, rewarding you with the odd fleeting glimpse before he mysteriously disappears. The gameplay is more difficult than is really necessary at f irst: nestles come thick and fast and don't ease up when you reach the edge of the screen. If a fireball appears at this point you have no chance of avoiding it; traversing from one screen to another becomes as much a matter of luck as skill. Collision detection is tight, and often clearly ducking a fireball is not enough to save your life (annoying when you only have three). These elements reduce Yeti's initial playability but with such high quality graphics and some compelling gameplay a little persistence should go a long way.'