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There's gold to be made from madcap ideas and Michael Sutin from Fissionchip Software has a history of doing precisely that - from co-inventing a popular, stuffed toy called the Gonk to patenting a mechanical aid to meditation some fifteen years before the advent of today's synchro-energisers. Nowadays, though, his business lies in games - and making his crust by producing playful and imaginative software, such as The Kristal.

Like its predecessor Aquanaut has a distinctive pulp science fiction feel to it. This time round the hero of the piece is a scuba diving secret agent called Ric Flair, who is sent on a mission to thwart renegade Ramanishi, monsters from another world who are living at the bottom of a globally warmed ocean. To be sure, much of the game is little more than a sixth form wheeze - even so, it's three notches up from your average home computer hokum, and a great of it's fun, such as the way the chief nasty is given a name, a name which sounds like Zebedee from The Magic Roundabout (or is it Kiki the frog from Hector's House?).

Aquanaut is a three-section, four-way vertical and horizontal scroller which progresses from a pure shoot-'em-up to a puzzle game in the second and third sections.

The final part sets you against mutant sharks, men-of-war jelly fish and swordfish while you replenish your breathable gas supplies and kit yourself out for battle. The sharks in particular are beautifully animated as they circle you. They're slow moving enough to pick off easily from a distance, but get too close to a school and you've precious little room in which to manoeuvre. Find your way to the end of this level, blow up the Ramanishi ship, and the sea bed will open up suckin you via an immensely pretty whirlpool into an underwater labyrinth. Oh, and don't forget to kiss the mermaid...

Be warned, getting to the exit in this winding, twisting second section is certainly no doddle. Each object or nasty has to be dealt with separately. My favourite are the vampiric oxygen suckers who you combat with garlic gas.

Once you're in the final section you can dispense with the need for oxygen. You fight your way Robocop-style through Atlantis, but the aim is pretty standard stuff: release four hostages and find the four pieces of the key which will open the door to Zeekee's bunker.

I had the most problems with this section. Whereas the adventure-style mode of The Kristal perfectly married its many inventive touches, strip away the gags in Aquanaut and you're left with the sort of shoot-'em-up that's been far better done by others. I wish, too, that there were some linguistic clues as to the use of the objects. I mean, how the hell are you supposed to know what to do with a Noshi Cub? Still, that's the sort of criticism I'd level at many of the D&D-style games, and no doubt to many that's a minor point.

On the plus side, there's more than enough in the way of idiosyncrasy - bizarre-looking sprites and unusual puzzles - for many hours of satisfying gameplay. The game looks lovely too. The only thing which really lets it down is its rather mundane soundtrack. A good Buck Rodgers-style in-game tune would have helped things considerably.

Fissionchip's next outing, which has the working title of Carruthers, will be more like The Kristal in terms of gameplay; but for their first foray into pure arcade action chief fryer Sutin and his accomplished band of programmers and artists really have made a very good stab.