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Funny, this game comes to me with the firm recommendation of another magazine stamped on it. If I was less charitable I'd say... well, it's a good job I am feeling charitable today.

And what a horrible game it is! No, don't rush off, I mean that it's left me foaming at the mouth, chewing bits off the carpet and clutching clumps of hair. You can take it as read then, that this is infuriatingly addictive.

The idea is simple and as far as I know original. You guide a tennis ball hopscotch style over a series of platforms set high up above the ground. Missing a platform results in your ball disappearing over the edge and plummeting earthwards until you hit the ground cartoon-style with a little puff of dust.

Bouncing around the slabs isn't as simple as it sounds. An endless supply of meanies drift about and lurk in wait. Contact with most causes you to pop and lose a life. It really is as simple and beautiful as that.

It's all a case of trial and error of course. Each time you have to get a little further just to see if you can improve, just to see what's coming up as the screen scrlls lazily along.

Graphics are neat and colourful, and the scrolling is smooth and staggered giving you a sense of the depth of the canyon below you. And the tune just aggravates the whole feeling of irritation when you fail. And fail you will - many times!

When you consider there's a useful little game on the other side of the tape (Metabolis) then this all adds up to a package well worth having. Besides which, who the hell needs an Amiga to create a bouncing ball when you've got Bounder?