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Nice artwork, nice game, excellent label - things could hardly have looked more promising for Athena at first glance. "Great!" thought I. "At last I can do a really banal, enthusiastic review for CU - you know, the kind that would get you Christmas cards from software houses. Think again... Athena is simply one of the worst games I've seen since Macsen popped its clogs (remember Treasure Hunt?) And having sat at it for two hours I can't help feeling that if new writers are still producing garbage like this and getting it published, then 8-bit software is definitely dying or dead already.

The plot tells of a heroine, Athena, fighting her way through a strange land towards a showdown with the Dark Overlord. "The blood of a hundred Samurai runs through her veins" we are told - well, that's as may be, but unfortunately the blood of a ZX81 runs through her sprite, for Athena herself is a stupid-looking blur, apparently wearing a baseball cap, who seems to attack her foes with a selection of kitchen utensils! In fairness to Ocean, Athena is based on an arcade game by SNK - easily one of the weakest and least original of the coin-op grants - but, even so, you would have thought they could let loose a decent programmer on it.

The game scrolls four ways, apparently through six levels, with Athena having to leap over or destroy the variety of vague sprites which wobble towards her. Some appear to be worms, others are clearly meant to be ogres, all move in from the left or right in predictable patterns a la Ghosts And Goblins. Sometimes your path across the screen will be blocked by a wall, but this can be knocked down brick by brick and behind some bricks you will find by way of extra weapons, yes... more kitchen utensils. At the top of the screen is a strength indicator for your heroine and one of the particular weapon you are carrying. Obviously, certain weapons are necessary to destroy certain foes and discovering which is which seems to be the main point of the game. Only by defeating some of the most powerful foes can you progress to the next level.

Other details include an uninspiring soundtrack by Martin Galway, no sound effects to speak of and background graphics like you used to draw with a big wax crayon when you were five. Need I say more?

I'm sorry I can't say anything complimentary about this one, because in the past Imagine have released some excellent products.