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So, someone's finally written a game about the Commodore Format offices, eh? Er... no. Apparently this hell hole is a Terran outpost among primitive but biologically hostile lifeforms. Ah! So it is about the CF offices!

Your poor character has been inadvertently dropped behind enemy lines (somewhere between Andy's desk and the door) and must make his way home, crossing a barren landscape littered with hazards both static and animated.

The scenery scrolls past (with a bit of nice Hawkeye-style parallax thrown in for good measure) as our hero runs and jump across platforms and bottomless chasms in the ground. I also can't help feeling that we've stumbled into the alien equivalent of your local high street, since all the local inhabitants are going in the opposite direction to you. If you're ever going to reach your destination, you're going to have to blow them away.

Luckily your machine gun has a handy auto-fire mode: just hold onto that fire button for a leaden stream of alien doom. Unluckily, you can't fire and move. If you start firing in jump, you plummet like a brick. So don't.

Hell Hole's visuals are all very pleasant, with smart backdrops and some large animated creatures. The action is fast and furious, but my main cause for concern is that the game is incredibly tough. You're constantly up against pixel-perfect jumps, incredibly tight timing, huge numbers of aliens, and a severe time limit! If you just go ploughing through the level, you get nowhere. However, when you begin to remember where the tougher aliens appear and form a plan of attack, you start to make progress. Also, collecting the right weapons at the right time is absolutely vital.

Once you get a decent strategy sorted out, you should make it on to the second and maybe even third levels, but actually finishing the game is, well, unlikely. (And all you get for your troubles is a poxy 'Congratulations'!)

Hell Hole is good for a quick blast, but if you've a low frustration threshold, beware.

1. Smart graphics, with large animated monsters and a pleasing variety of enemies.
2. Long levels, nicely drawn and detailed
3. Good weapon select system, allowing you to choose the best equipment for the job
4. Gameplay does become addictive once you've overcome the difficulty hurdle

1. Ludicrously difficult, really tough task and a horribly severe time limit
2. Repetitive action - one level plays very similarly to another
3. Poor presentation, with limited options and shoddy documentation
4. Inability to jump and fire proves restrictive and frustrating