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It's you against a friend or the computer in Bombastic! There are several antimatter bombs floating and rebounding round the screen, between you and your opponent, who are small, uninteresting squares at the edges of the screen.

These bombs, when struck by you or your opponent's missiles, will change colour and speed up each time they are hit, until after a few shots have been sustained, when they will start to flash. When they do this, they are lethal, blowing holes in each player's forcefields.

If a hole gets large enough, a flashing bomb will be able to glide through, hitting your back wall, causing the screen to tremor and end the game. The survivor of the duel will receive any remaining bonus from a counter, which starts at the beginning, and decreases by 100 points every ten seconds that the game is in action. (You can freeze the game using the space bar). If neither of you die before the counter reaches zero you both lose.

During the game points are scored when the bombs are hit, or blow up in an impressive explosion, or when a flashing bomb makes a gap in your opponent's protective barrier. If your score is amongst the highest achieved in the session you can type in your name, of up to eight characters, and enter the Hall of Fame.

There are ten levels of play, which vary the speed of the anti-matter bombs and the size and shape of shields in the centre of the screen. These shields partially cover the movement of the bombs.

Bombastic! has limited appeal, mainly because the game goes on too long. The slow action of the firing certainly makes the trusty shooting-thumb sore! I was left with the impression that something was missing from the game. Overall a rather average game.