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Okay, so you read about Trailblazer last month? Tried it yet? Well, even if you didn't get to try Trailblazer, I think you'll be interested with this budget ball game.

Mastertronic claim that "Powerball will beat you. No chance". I don't know about you readers but I had literally no clear idea of how the ball was controlled. After several hours of trial and error, I cracked it. Not the game, the control system.

You guide a bouncing ball along a strange area, which looks a bit like a house in an attempt to get to the end. The end zone beckons so you mustn't hang around or you will run out of time.

There are many hazards to overcome like walls, spiky plants, a meany or two and even some missiles show up on later screens.

There are various ways in which you can get your ball popped - like hitting a spiky plant, a meany, a missile hitting you, or by falling through the gaps in the floor. The falling through the gaps option was a very regular occurrence on my first few hours of play, soon after I came to a funny screen which didn't allow me to pass.

This screen is miles away from the beginning and I got there by using the nice cheat method, whereby you can carry on from where you left off by pulling down on your joystick when the game is over.

The graphics are very good, with excellent use of colour. The leftwards scrolling screen was smooth with not a single judder, until you died of course. The sprites were of high quality and didn't have those nasty blocks around them when they passed over objects.

Sound was quite good, with a convincing 'boing' for when you start building up bounce to clear the next line of spiky plants. The nice little jingle would soon be followed up by a good crash sound. With me at the ball's controls, I made it to screen five and this was without the cheat option. Bad marks for no high score and no title screen, there was just a game over screen.

I only managed to find one bug. This occurred when a meany ran across the screen leaving a trail of meanies behind it. As for that funny screen, well I don't know what Mastertronic will think about this, but I actually passed it. What happens then? You don't just start all over again, the screen gets filled with garbage that kills you immediately after you ball appears.

I did enjoy this game - though I feel it wasn't hard enough.

I'll recommend it to most owners who'd like a go at controlling balls. Oh yes, I nearly forgot to mention it, the cover had me laughing for about one minute.