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Collapse is Firebird's latest offering in their budget software range. It is an arcade game with a difference, and the idea behind it is something very original.

On the first screen you are presented with a matrix of dots. In the middle of it, there are a pattern of grey sticks.

The object of this weird and wonderful game is to turn all the grey sticks blue and then to collapse them, all in one go if possible. That may sound all very straightforward but playing the game is a different matter!

You take the role of Zen, who luckily is a magician - but not all the time. There are two modes of play: When Zen has magic, and when he doesn't. When he has magiz Zen can float and sprinkle Magic-dust which kills the time-eating monsters.

Why doesn't he keep his magical powers all the time...? Because he can only turn the sticks blue when he has no powers. [Obvious really - Ed]

But of course as in any game there are other hazards. You have a time limit, and there are time-eating monsters, who will gladly drain one hundred units of your precious time. These monsters are easily stunned with a sprinkle of your magic dust.

When your time limit runs out you lose one of your three lives. If you complete the first sheet you will come to another, which has a different pattern of sticks. After that, there's only ninety-four to go! It is possible on all of the ninety-six sheets to collapse all of the sticks on one go, although I haven't managed that.

Collapse is a good and very playable game, which proves that good games can be produced at pocket-money prices. Well worth buying.