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The epithet 'original' can be bestowed on this first release from the new software company with the ambitious-sounding name. As they have already written Hunchback for Ocean, their launch program is not likely to be a flash in the pan.

What we have here is a series of arcade puzzles, enacted in full perspective, dredged from a chess fanatic's full-blown nightmare. It may seem a breeze to march pawns across a chess board even if a hostile horde of creeps is hemming you in... but it isn't. Hunting you down is a different chess piece on each screen, clonking around through its recognised move patterns. Combine that threat with the deadly red squares (Again generated in a different manner for each phase) and you have a real challenge on your hands. It's a game you have to work at, probably appealing in the main to the 'sophisticated' gamester or the jaded zapper. This one won't date like last year's space games.

The graphics are just the ticket. The oddball freaks, ever ready to grab you should you trip over the edge of the board, have that medieval creature-from-hell look and are much given to hurling fireballs. As for the animation, it's realistic 3D throughout all 64 squares.

If you are determined there is plenty of entertainment to be tapped.