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Don't expect too much from the claim that Again Again's The Munsters is based upon the 60's smash of the same name. The game shares little of the invention or wit of the original TV series. For an allegedly piece of 'horribly good software' this, I'm afraid, is more of a horrible ham sandwich - stodgy, stale and liable to stick in your throat.

What makes this less-than-appetising arcade adventure so hard to swallow is its turgid, simplistic gameplay, so-so plot and decidedly average graphics. I cannot ever imagine getting excited enough to play this game time and time over.

"Blimey!" I hear you thunder. "Here's one reviewer who's really got the bit between his teeth." Well, maybe. The idea behind the plot is actually quite neat. It's the way that this is interpreted so literally which makes The Munsters so dull.

Depending on which of the three levels you're in, you get to play Herman, Grandpa and Lily in their quest to rescue their oddball offspring, Eddie and Marilyn, from the clutches of the likes of Dracula and Satan, who have decided to teach the Munster family a lesson for being too damn cuddly for a supposed group of fiends.

Level one finds you wandering through the house, its chapel and graveyard in search of Eddie. You must defend yourself against hovering blue spectres. These can only be killed if you have the appropriate icon.

Once you've managed to side-step Dracula (old wtinkle-teeth is indestructible, so no touching please), and you've blown away a few ghoulies (ouch!), especially the spell-sapping darker kinds, it's off to the cemetery.

Zombies rise out of the ground a la Ghosts 'N Goblins, so collect the lightning conductor and fry them as they rise. Rescue Eddie, encounter some jiggery spookery in the catacombs, and it's on to level two.

Here you control a dragon as it flies above the Munster-mobile. The idea is basic enough: kill obstacles and spinning discs which turn into werewolves. There are two ways of protecting the car: you can breathe fire onto the opposition or you can lift the auto out of harm's reach.

The final level could have been a sort of Operation Wolf-man. It certainly should have been a lot better. You have to rescue Marilyn by shooting, three times, the enemy as they emerge from the doorways of the room in which you are in. It's the simplest of the levels, and it's very much an anticlimax.

But it is the numbingly repetitious gameplay to which I most object. The action is slow and this is particularly the case with the first level, where in between killing the guardians of some very faint icons, you have to replenish your spell power by zapping minor ghosts.

This didn't sustain my interest. The animation makes it look as if your energy bolts emanate from Lily's chest instead of her hands. By the time that you've come a cropper and you've run into your third or fourth spell-sapping ghost, you don't feel like starting anew. It's time to put bazooka boobs and the whole game to rest.

It could have been faster. There could have been more to the sound than just the endlessly repeated 'Munsters' theme. The graphics could be clearer and more inventive.

It's a shame. The Munsters smacks of the Stock Aitken and Waterman "get-'em-out-quick" approach to software publishing. This game should have been fun. With a little more thought, that might have been the case.

The gameplay is the game on the Amiga version. The icons are better defined, bt the version does not make adequate use of the Amiga's scrolling capabilities. There are more sound effects, but there is still that endless Munster theme.

At least the C64 version made use of a few chord changes!