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Oh, great, I thought, just what we need - another text adventure. I love text adventures, but I'm always a bit wary - they're so often complete rubbish, knocked up one rainy afternoon by someone who didn't have anything better to do. Still, I thought, there's no point pre-judging it best to load it up and have a look.

The introduction looks great, at least. With big, well-drawn, cartoony graphics and - hurrah - some smooth animation, it sets the scene nicely. As you may have guessed from the title, I got something to do with sleeping. When I was little, I couldn't work out what "Zzzz" meant whenever I read it in the Beano. It wasn't until much later when I realised it was pronounced "Zzzz" and not "Zzzz" that it all began to make sense. {It still doesn't make any sense to me. I thought it was pronounced "Zzzz" - Dave].

Anyway, off you go to sleep, and stuff happens to you (well, it would, wouldn't it?). It's quite neat and the parser works acceptably well. Although it doesn't understand 'it'. Surely this is standard by now? Surely 'it' is the last object the game described?

"You see a spade," says the game. "Take it," you reply. "You take the spade," says the game. Not here, mate. "There's no it here", it says, "it must be a figment of your imagination." Pah.

While we're on the subject of smart-alec parsers, who really thinks the wisecrack replies are funny every time they read them? They're okay the first time, but not every wretched time. Pack it in at once or you'll not get any ice cream.

I'm sorry, where was I? Ah yes, Zzzz. The puzzles are fairly straightforward, but some of them are a little tiresome. Not because they're too tough, but because you have to do things you might never have thought of doing. For instance, you need a lift at one point but don't bother with the bus, you need to wait 'til a strange bloke goes by on a bike. Hmmm. That's certainly my first choice whenever I want to go anywhere. Other than that, it's not too bad.

It's not the world's biggest game (the complete solution, which I have, fits onto two-thirds of a sheet of A4) but it's quite fun and the newly-added graphics pep things up no end.

If you want an entertaining diversion, then Zzzz might prove to be quite fun for a few hours, at least. But it's not that much of a challenge and when all's said and done, there's not that much of 'hook' in the story to really grip you.

1. Smart graphics.

1. Dim parser.
2. Not especially inspiring puzzles.
3. Dull story.
4. It's not very big.