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The latest release from Bubble Bus could well do a world of good for its image. Starquake is very Ultimatesque in appearance and seems to have plenty of polish and some nice touches like the old style Ultimate games, Atic Atac and Sabre Wulf. With a promise of 500 screens there should also be plenty to do and see.

The loading screen has a rather familiar "squiggly" border and a good backing tune so the whole thing can't help but remind you of Ultimate. The main menu allows all sorts of options for keyboard or joystick use, including the ability to redefine keys. The rather unhelpful rubric on the cassette inlay mumbles on about planets likely to explode and how you're the last hope for humanity (blobity, actually, as your character is a blob). There is also a list of features entitled "Galaxy A-Z" which quite definitely is not in A-Z order! But there's no real idea of just what you are supposed to be doing.

Starting the game sets our hero on the surface of the planet next to the remains of his spacecraft. Moving to the left allows him to fail into the planet passing through many screens littered with baddies whose contact. means depletion of energy.

Three bar graphs give an idea of energy, firepower and ability to lay bridging platforms. A bridging platform is a temporary block you can stand on to get across a gap without falling further towards the centre of the planet. The other method of avoiding the effects of gravity is to fall on to one of the pads where you can become attached to a sort of floating platform. The drawback of doing this is that you are no longer able to pick up one of the major objects of the game.

There are floating platform parking lots dotted about that enable you to get off if necessary. Also lying about are various types of packs that boost one of the three attributes mentioned above. There are also little joysticks that give another life you start with five.

To try to dissuade the baddies from bumping into you, you are armed with a gun that shoots zig-zag laser bolts. Sometimes the rather unordered nasties turn into rather static but quite deadly objects looking like hi-tech cotton reels.

The objects that can be picked up within the huge cave system are a funny collection - fire extinguishers, Access cards and crossbows, among others. Exactly what you can do with them once you've got them I have yet to figure out but I guess that's the idea of the game. The final aim is to collect all the parts of a reactor-like thing and assemble them in a central place.

Things I have worked out how to use include the teleports. Each has a five letter code and it's a good idea to note them down so you can easily hop about the place. Without. knowing the destination codes you won't get very far.

OK, I'll admit that I'm an illiterate dingbat, but am I missing something? Am I really supposed to know what the hell I'm meant to be doing based on the information given on the inlay? While the game has some marked similarities to the style of Ultimate, the one thing it doesn't give is sufficient clues about what you are supposed to do! Although Ultimate buried it in cryptic poetry, at least there was a clue somewhere.

The game itself looks great and is in Mode 1 which is my own preference. There are plenty of imaginative sprite designs and the room layout and design is also full of thought for detail.

If I had many hours to spend trying to figure it out I could well get to like this game but the instructions are a bit of a non-starter. My highest score to date is about 25,000 with 11 per cent of the adventure completed - but I don't really know what I did to get that!

Starquake is very similar to the underrated Obsidian from Artic. This likeness is exacerbated by the single colour sprites and the space setting. The lack of colour does not extend to the backgrounds and fauna - some of the settings are really very pretty.

Your little spaceman (blob) is cute. The game is very big and also very hard. Once you get used to flying about on the hover pad it becomes very difficult to get by without it. Half the trick of the game is using the little platforms to hop short distances.

There are hover pad landing points near every item of value so seeing one of these points is a dead giveaway.

You should shoot around until you see the goody then land and get it. Starquake is a game which will take a long time to conquer and, while not technically brilliant, it is very playable.

At first glance Starquake is not worth a second glance. However a little perseverance reveals a game of real quality. Monochromatic sprites [Nigel gets this month's prize for using the biggest words - Ed] similar to the style of Ultimate's games are used to provide a very clear image.

The game is basically a wander round the screens getting the objects and solving the puzzles game. But all these types of games are judged by the design of their screens and the best have puzzles that can only be solved by knowing the layout of the game.

Starquake is that type, and each time you play it you learn a bit more to get you a bit further. Not many points for originality but plenty for simple quality and polish. I like it.