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Spot the odd one out: Xybots, Vindicators, Cyberball, Hard Drivin', STUN Runner. Yes, it's obvious, isn't it? There isn't one. They're all Tengen licences and they're all crap. So it is with the utmost apprehension that I approach Thunder Jaws - yet another product of the Domark/Tengen deal.

The plot is this: the completely barmy Madame Q is busy creating an army of lizard women in her underwater bases. Now you're either a crack underwater commando-spy trained in the art of killing... or an amateur scuba diver who has stumbled upon Madame Q's sub-aquatic lair while on a pebble-collecting expedition. It's never really explained too clearly; either way, you're in deep water (Commodore Format would like to apologise for that last statement. We're sorry and it won't happen again).

As you would expect, some mad old lady with a reptile fixation isn't going to let you stroll around her secret base without a bit of a fight. She immediately unleashes her Q-Forces, consisting of an almost infinite number of guards, robot guards, robot spiders, manta-men, lava-men, sharks, barrels full of gunk, tanks, laser devices, fire-women, bat-women, lizard-women, uneven paving slabs and a partridge in a pear tree shouldering a thermonuclear bazooka. She really is as mad as a Ford Escort.

The Madame Q-defeating mission is split into alternating wet 'n dry levels. You must first swim through her underwater defences to reach each base. Then you have to run the gauntlet of her base defences in order to reach and destroy the end-of-level guardian. Back into your wet suit and so it continues...

Ignoring the wacky plotline, what we have here is a pretty formulaic shoot-'em-up: the formula being Rolling Thunder + underwater James Bond-type stuff = not very much, I'm afraid. The C64 version isn't particularly good-looking or particularly nice-sounding or particularly playable. In fact, it's so hectic that you generally just stomp through, hitting fire as fast as possible. There's little in the way of tactics or strategy you can employ and it all grows very dull, very quickly.

The visuals are a wonderful vintage - circa 1986, I do believe. Backdrops, sprites and animation (a full three frames worth in most cases) are all pretty naff - but then at least they're in line with the coin-op. True, there's a nice explodey sound effect and a 'bloop' noise as your swimmer blows bubbies - but during play that's as much as you get.

It's not even neatly coded: there are graphic glitches, unfriendly collision detection, sprite bugs (enemies hover in mid-air) and levels which just stop, rather than ending properly.

Sot the odd one out: Xybots, Vindicators, Cyberball, Hard Drivin', STUN Runner, Thunder Jaws... Oh dear. It looks like it's Domark - six, C64 gamers - nil. Now I can't make some inane "getting your teeth into it" joke at the end.

1. Poor quality programming: glitches, bugs and generally sloppy.
2. Awful graphics - character blocks are in evidence throughout.
3. Flaky animation on all of the sprites - three frames at most.
4. Tedious gameplay of the most mindless variety.
5. Poor game design offers no real challenge - just fire and hope.
6. Action doesn't change from one level to the next - it just gets harder.
7. Where's the in-game soundtrack?
8. The end-of-level guardians are pretty pathetic.

1. The explosion sound effects are nice and meaty.
2. There are enough tough levels to keep you occupied.
3. Lots of weapons power-ups.