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You may like this, or you may not, as household TV personality and all round slime bag Paul Daniels would put it. I do not.

Every Second Counts is the latest in a series of very average games based on television quiz shows. It's based on the programme that replaced Bob's Full House in the Saturday night pre pub slot. Naturally, it's brain numbing, particularly so in the untalented hands of Moron the magician, Mr. P Daniels.

The game isn't exactly complicated. Couples compete against each other by answering fairly basic general knowledge questions to see who goes through to a big money/price final. It's just like any other quiz game in that respect. Every Second Counts' particular trait is to trade not points (even though we all know points make prizes!) but seconds. Thus, the more time you gain, the more you have when it comes to the final round.

So how have the ever inventive chaps at TV Games gone about capturing the thrills of this one? A quick look at the packaging is enough to give the game away. Turning over the sickly picture of Slaphead Daniels on the front reveals three screenshots that betray this as being not dissimilar to any other quiz game. Choose from among several pictures of men and women, give them names and answer questions appropriately.

Round One is simply a question of hitting a predefined key to attest that a statement is either true or false. Answering ten questions takes you into Round Two where you can choose a category of question. You have a choice of three. Before you know where you are, you're into Showcase Showdown or whatever they call the final.

This is the high point of the game. The screen chances (gasp!) for only the second time in the game to reveal the partners in a new question in this karma sutra of quizzes: Side by side! Questions are answered alternately (lots of fiddling with various keys) on a chosen topic. The contestants have to light a certain number of triangles (borrowed from Blankety Blank) to go onto the next stage (and a bigger prize - well, in the TV version anyway).

Every Second Counts falls into the same category as just about every other release in this series. Quiz shows are fun to watch on television and to play in arcades/pubs. They're rarely fun to play on the computer. My suggestion for the next licence has to be Catchphrase.