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Deep inside an old, dark castle, the spirit and soul of some nameless deceased have become separated and float aimlessly through the surreal rooms and corridors of the deserted building.

The person's spirit has taken the form of a smiling ghost (perhaps he hasn't realised he's dead yet) of the white-sheet variety, while the soul is encapsulated in a transparent bubble. For some unexplained reason, the ghost is charged with guiding the bubble around the 34 flick-screen rooms of the castle, and while the ghost may be guided through the variety of obstacles in a suitably ethereal manner, the bubble is extremely fragile and bursts at the slightest contact. Since the ghost cannot actually touch anything, he moves the bubble by blowing it.

A tap on the SHIFT key on the fire button and the ghost puffs out his little cheeks and the bubbles move accordingly, drifting along slowly until blown in another direction. Blow for too long, and the spirit turns red.

As the bubble reaches the exit (a gap in the brickwork) the next screens slithers into view, and the ghost continues in this way until all 34 screens have been negotiated.

As can be seen from the screenshots, the scenery is typically French - i.e. odd! The rooms are full of weird objects, many animated, and are full of little 'gags' which facilitate the need to blow objects to help progress.

Bubble Ghost is a fairly original, if simple concept, but the gameplay is quite addictive.

The novel control method is tricky to get to grips with - the C64 version requires the fire button to be used to blow and rotate the ghost by holding it and moving left or right on the joystick. But it soon becomes second nature, and the bubble can be guided around with amazing precision: It wasn't long before I was whizzing through the screens - in fact, after only a few days' play, I had got through 27 of the 34 screens. This is fine for me, but rather more worrying for those of you contemplating shelling your hard-earned on it.

Bubble Ghost is fun - but at a cost; if it had a cheaper price tag, it might be a more viable proposition.

There's little graphically to separate the Amiga version from its C64 counterpart.

The control method is slightly easier for the simple reason that the mouse allows you to rotate the ghost, whilst clicking makes him blow. This is the only place too where added sound enhances the 16-bit version. Make the ghostly geezer blow too hard and he'll collapse with a wheezy cough.

It's also the easiest version, so twenty quid is definitely too steep.