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Oh dear! A thief has stolen King Zub's most prized possession, 'The Eyeball of Zub' and hidden it on a planet called Zub Ten. The King is pretty cheesed-off by this and has ordered you, Sergeant Zub of the Navigation Corps, to go and retrieve it.

The route to Zub Ten is via the ancient Zub Teleport system. Each of the ten planets in the Zub planetary system has three teleporters hovering a mile or so above the atmosphere - the only way they can be reached is by negotiating a series of floating platforms which sit at different altitudes. By moving one platform left or right until it sits under the platform above, Zub can jump up until he reaches the penultimate platform. When Zub is safely sitting on this he has a choice of jumping onto three teleporting platforms, each leading to anther planet in the Zub system. The objective is to get to Zub Ten, where 'The Eyeball of Zub' can be picked up.

Planet guardians make the task more difficult by homing in on Zub and trying to push him off the platforms. Contact with a guardian reduces Zub's vital energy, so a careful watch must be kept on his on-screen energy bar. Fortunately, his energy can be replenished after teleporting - a screen is displayed with seven energy pills of differing strengths. Pressing the space bar selects whichever pill is flashing, and the appropriate amount of energy is added to the bar.

Zub isn't defenceless and can shoot at the guardians, forcing them to fly to the top of the playing area for a couple of seconds. The guardians' position (in relation to Zub) can be monitored by the radar, situated at the bottom of the screen. As Zub gets nearer to Zub Ten the guardians become increasingly aggressive, making it trickier to get to the teleporters.

Originality is the program's strong point - it fails in its graphics, sound and playability. The big problem is that it's incredibly boring - there's nothing more to the game than leaping up from platform to platform, trying to get to the top of the screen, avoiding the horrible creature which tries to kill you in the process.

The tune which plays throughout is downright annoying and the graphics are bland and don't really add anything at all. Okay, so the program might be only a couple of quid, but when compared to the likes of Park Patrol there's just no comparison.

Zub is quite a strange game - I suppose the best comparison would be to say that it's like a vertical Frogger. It's great fun to play, compulsive and addictive, but I can't say exactly why - it's just one of those games which you just can't put down until you've got it sussed.

The presentation is good, with a somewhat confusing title screen that leads very neatly into the game itself. Don't expect to get bowled over by it - just sit back and enjoy it for what it's worth.

Zub is well presented, graphically sparse, aurally reasonable, and very dull. I quickly became bored as all it involves is jumping up from platform to platform, occasionally shooting security robots - very tedious.

Also, it's possible to start the game by pressing the fire button - even though the input is set to keyboard. This proves most annoying, especially as the input always defaults to keyboard!

I wouldn't recommend Zub, even at this low price.

Originality is this program's strong point - it fails in its graphics, sound and playability. The big problem is that it's incredibly boring - there's nothing more to the game than leaping up from platform to platform, trying to get to the top of the screen, avoiding the horrible creature which tries to kill you in the process.

The tune which plays throughout is downright annoying and the graphics are bland and don't really add anything at all. Okay, so the program might be only a couple of quid, but when compared to the likes of Park Patrol there's just no comparison.

Presentation 78%
Pleasant enough title screen and in-game presentation. Annoying flaw where control always defaults to keyboard.

Graphics 47%
Minimal - but what's there is reasonable.

Sound 62%
Two suitable tunes and a few mediocre spot FX.

Hookability 63%
Mildly addictive with a straightforward objective.

Lastability 35%
Too dull and repetitive to have any great lasting appeal.

Value For Money 49%
Cheap but not overly cheerful.

Overall 38%
A glamorous but tedious clone of Frogger.