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"The Muncher is a bit similar to the coin-op Rampage, isn't it?"

"Which coin-op?" said the man from Gremlin.

"You know, the one with the gorilla that goes around pulling down buildings and eating people."

"Oh, that one."

"Yes, that one."

In other words they might look similar, but then one space trading game looks much the same as another and, if you take two games which both feature a monster, tall buildings and short people...

So, The Muncher has nothing to do with Rampage.

Now a word from our sponsor. Chewits are chewier than a twenty storey building. Who's going to swallow that one? What am I talking about? Well, the monster in the Chewits TV ad and 'The Muncher' are in fact one and the same. Details are in short supply, but there's some kind of deal whereby Chewit eaters can get enormous reductions on the game. As yet, there are no plans to supply The Muncher players with twenty storey buildings at special rates.

Now back to the game. The muncher stands there looking pretty gormless while small men with guns, tanks, armoured vehicles and helicopters take pot shots at him, seriously depleting his supply of energy. The ever versatile joystick gives the Muncher a wide range of counter attack options. He can reduce tall buildings to a pile of rubble with a few well-aimed tail swipes and having thus reduced the buildings to scaleable proportions he can then leap them in a single bound, as they say, or start climbing up the walls.

Similarly destructive things can be done to people. You can jump on them from a great height, scoop them up for a tasty snack, breathe fireballs at them or, if you're not in the mood for it, simply run away. Airborne things can be brought down with fireballs, or for a bit of extra excitement you can jump up in the air and sink your teeth into them.

There are three stages in the game: the Beach, Nintendo Park and the Army Base, which are completed by getting from one end of the scrolling landscape to the other without dying in between. Things get more difficult the further you progress, and if you manage to reach the end you get to fight it out with another ugly-looking prehistoric beast in true King Kong v Godzilla style.

Despite all that the game is not what you'd call enormously difficult. In other words it's quite easy. It's intended, I would say, for novice-demolishing-people-eating prehistoric monsters and not old hands at the game.