The good news is that Kaktus is a good, challenging game that makes imaginative use of the Vic's graphics. The bad news is that you need at least an 8K expansion to run it. You'll have to look fairly hard at the box to discover that because it's printed in pretty small type on the spine!

A cactus in the centre of the screen is being eaten by wasps and hornets. You are a gopher who must scamper from left to right in a tunnel under the cactus, shooting at the insects to protect the cactus. (So, who said game scenarios had to be logical?)

When the game begins, the graphics are invariably off-centre. You can move them back with the cursor controls, but take care not to move them over too far. If you do, you cannot move them back again. All you can do is restart.

There are more than enough hazards in the game to keep you on your toes. The insects release acid drops, which can eat away the ground over the gopher's burrow. If they hit the gopher himself, he is filled. On the other hand, they do provide extra holes to fire through.

Your gopher is allowed to come out of the burrow into the open, but it's difficult to see why, since out there, he is much more likely to be hit by the acid drops and is a lot less mobile.

He is also in danger of being trapped above ground by the occasional mole, who closes up the entrance to his burrow.

The game ends when all three lives are gone, or the insects succeed in eating away the base of the cactus so that it falls.

You control the game with a joystick or, failing that, with reasonably easy-to-use keys - but the L key, which you use to fire, does not repeat if you hold it down.

Though obviously inspired by Space Invaders - nothing wrong with emulating a classic! - Kaktus is sufficiently different to interest players who have got bored with variations on the alien attack theme. The graphics, though simple, are effective, and the mole provides enough of a 'wild' element to add to the general interest.