Zub is an unusual name for a game. Zub is unusual. Zub is the most astoundingly addictive game I've played this year. Zub has the second best soundtrack on the 128K+2 so far Zub costs £2.99.

Beyond mere the addiction - the entire SU team was obsessed by the damn thing.

People queued up to play it, work stopped, memos were issued there was talk of locking it away.

It's fantastically amazing.

Consider this a recommendation.

Try to play it on a 128K if you possibly can. It features all kinds of music, sonic noises and crazed explosions.

Zub starts in the way it means to go on. The opening screen is a mad title page with all sorts of ridiculous credits, next up is an insane control panel. Each panel scrolls around and around like a computer out of control, read it carefully and you'll find crazy error messages.

The game. There is you. And there is a thing. Sort of silly looking with long gangly limbs and a fearful expression.

The sum total of the plot of the game is as follows: you try to get from down (a planet surface) to up (where you get picked up by a tractor beam and sent to the next planet). Getting up there is simple (theoretically). Jump up to a platform then 'ride' that platform until you find another one within jumping distance, and jump one step higher up. Then do it again.

Does it sound easy? Hah.

Wrong. There's this thing, this sort of metallic mouth that sometimes sweeps down and knocks you off your perch. The higher you climb the further you can fail. You spend a lot of time falling in this game. The metallic mouth thing starts to get very irritating There is some defence. You, Zub have a rather puny laser. If you manage to hit the mouth thing it goes away for a while. You probably won't hit it though.

That's it. You keep trying to climb up using the platforms and you keep falling. just when you think you have finally cracked it you fall a very, very long distance. The point is you get better. Gradually you learn some sort of technique and finally after about fifty times I got through the first level - playing it on 'Easy peasy' (on Level 4 it's. 'I would say' impossible. It was a pretty dramatic moment I can tell you. The next level features a different annoying alien (a jellyfish - see I told you I really did it) and in between is a sort of bonus extra energy section. Basically it's more of the same but who cares? Zub is a vital purchase.

Label: Mastertronic Author: Binary Design Price: £2.99 Joystick: various Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: Graham Taylor

*****

Possibly the most addictive arcade game released on the Spectrum this year. So simple yet it's absolutely stunning.