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Activision stands to lose its reputation for excellent Spectrum software if it releases many games as appalling as Toy Bizarre. We're back on the platform theme again, with you needing just three keys to control the left-right-jump movements of Merton the Maintenance Man, though you can use Kempston, Interface II or cursor-controlled joysticks.

Merton works in a toy factory, comprising four levels, some of which have valves. Balloons fill up at the valves, then float to the top of the screen. It's your job to pop them, with each screen setting you a certain number of balloons to burst before you progress to the next one. The balloons you miss turn into slowly descending helicopters which you must evade. You're also hiding from hopping Hilda, who tries to deprive you of one of your four lives.

So far, so straightforward if a little silly - but there are several things wrong with this game. Let's say the sound is poor - to begin with! - and let's say the graphics are even poorer. The figures are drawn on large blocks, so they obliterate anything they pass before, and there seem to be only two different positions for each to try to indicate movement. Colours also spread from one object to another, the response to the keyboard controls is slow (the character can hop along a few paces before turning) and the collision detection is terrible - at one stage my character moved along directly on top of the Hilda character for several seconds before the program woke up and thought "Ah-ho, a collision - aren't I supposed to do something about this?"

All you need to do about Toy Bizarre is forget it.