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When Hamelin was infested with rats the Pied Piper enticed them out with his flute. In this game you, as a psychopathic rat-catcher, cruelly splat your victims over the head with a hammer.

You must rid a sewer system of rates which have infested it for years. Cheese has been laid out to attract the rodents and during the annihilation you must ensure this supply does not run out. The dilemma is whether to concentrate on saving cheese or killing rats. If 15 rats snuff it, you get bonus cheeses.

There are other hazards to be reckoned with. Noxious cheesey fumes are increasing all the time, as shown by the smellometer, and if you are not pretty snappy the pungent aroma will overcome you. Also, the rats have a monster chum, sentimentally attached to his furry friends. He looks harmless enough bouncing around the sewers with an inane grin, but his touch is fatal to rat executioners.

The screen is filled with sewers on six levels connected by ladders. There are 32 lumps of cheese scattered liberally about and rats scurry around waving their tails and gobbling the cheese at an alarming rate.

With six control keys you direct a harassed little rat catcher who, hammer in hand, runs up and down the different levels chasing after very agile rats. The best time for execution is when they sink their teeth into a tasty hunk of cheese: save the cheese and notch up one rat. the slow but sly monster chum may materialise at any moment, sometimes right beneath your feet with disastrous consequences. Exchanging your hammer for a monster aerosol and spraying the beast makes it sink into the sewer floor.

Points are scored for kills and a high score is shown between games.

The graphics are good with the rats whizzing around at great speed. As you approach they hesitate, then turn and scurry away. Sound is used to good effect - there is a short musical introduction, almost recognisable as Scott Joplin; a loud buzzing noise to warn you of oncoming monsters; the squeaking of the rats and a rather satisfying squelch as you hit them.

This is a fast single-level game and therefore quite hard to get far with at first. And as you rat-killing skill develops quickly, it's not really varied enough to sustain interest for very long.

Computer games now simulate touch, sight and hearing. Maybe smell will be next, but please - not in this game.