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Like Indiana Jones hated snakes, I hate bugs. Not, I hasten to point out, the traditional creepy-crawy, six-legged, washed-down-the-plughole, climbing-in-your-ear-and-laying-eggs-in-your-brain kind - they're fine in a hideous, alien sort of way. No, I speak of the dreaded bugs you get in computer programs, that elusive breed of pest which not only crashes your Amiga, it also erases its memory, corrupts your floppies, re-formats the hard drive and then, for good measure, causes the power pack to erupt in flames, resulting in the loss of your house and all possessions. Or something like that, anyway.

You'll appreciate, then, why I was so pleased to be chosen to review Bug Bomber. In this computer centre, see, there's been a mass outbreak of bugs (hate 'em) in the main computer. You and up to three mates have to enter the computer and hunt down the electronic pests, using any and all means at your disposal, including bombs and flame throwers, Heh-heh-heh!

As you'll have surmised from the screenshots, Bug Bomber is essentially a souped-up version of UBIsoft's Dynablaster. Its simple, very playable, insanely addictive if played by two or more but ultimately limited in scope and lacking in variety. It's also, for all its refinements and extra weapons, not as good a game as Dynablaster. But hey! That's the risk you take when you try to beef up a concept beautiful in its simplicity.

Simple games of this type are only as good as their playability and, indeed, you may have noticed that Bug Bomber's Playability and Overall marks are identical. In Bug Bomber's case, this 'rule of thumb' is fortunate because the game certainly doesn't impress on the sound 'n graphics front.

That said, they're more than adequate for the task in hand and, even if the sprites and the backdrops do lack the cute Japanese style that made Dynablaster so appealing, they at least have the virtue of being clear and individually recognisable, an essential requirement given their small size.

Kingsoft have obviously spent a lot of time thinking about how the basic concept could be tweaked and expanded and the new ideas have been well implemented.

However, they just don't add that much to the game. In the heat of battle, the last thing you want to bother thinking about is which robot egg to lay.

Play has a tendency to centre around the use of good old-fashioned bombs and the longer-range thunderbolts, with anything more exotic rarely making an appearance. Like Dynablaster, Bug Bomber is a competent but ultimately repetitive one-player game, with the real fun coming from the participation of your friends for simultaneous action. If you can muster the mates, you'd be hard pushed to find a more enjoyable group game concept.