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To Hell And Back is a game that puts you in charge of a power-assisted saint's halo. There are bibles to pick up for extra strength and the tablets of the Ten Commandments to be found. This is either a game of great religious devotion or boys at CRL are pushing their luck when Judgement Day comes around.

Having crossed myself three times, but on my heavy-duty rosary beads and fasted for three days, I'll tell you what it's about. You are Angel Gabriel. Your quest is to find the ten tablets of the Ten Commandments which, when found, will lead you down to Hell. Why you should want to go to Hell is a theological problem CRL have decided not to confront.

The game has ten levels, each, when completed, awarding you with a tablet. But before you can reach the end of a level, you must fight off loads of meanies and jump across lots of gaps and chasms. It's all very much like Ghosts 'N Goblins.

Your only weapon, as I was saying, is the halo hovering above your head. Press the fire button, and it suddenly shoots out in front, zapping whatever is in its way before coming back to rest above your head - the Pope would be green with envy. Anyway, despite being an angel, Gabriel can't fly. He manages only to walk and jump. Perhaps he sacrificed his wings for the killer halo.

Now for the nasties. The easiest ones to kill are the hooded ghost-like figures that materialise out of the ground and walk around. These will lose you a point of energy if they bump into you. Occasionally they'll leave behind a bible when zapped. Pick these up for extra energy points.

Trickier are the flying bats that swoop up and down at the point where you must jump over a gap. Nastiest of all are the swooping ghoulies. They fly up and down and from left to right. Being hit by one of these knocks you either forward or back.

This usually happens when you're about to jump over a gap, thus knocking you off into the fires below and losing you one of your five lives.

When you do make it to the end of a level, you confront a large beast which must be shot repeatedly before it's destroyed and relinquishes one of the ten tablets. Then it's on to the next level and more of the same.

Although there's not much to tax the brain, the game is very difficult to play, because controlling Gabriel takes some time to master. The problem is making him jump. Push the joystick a fraction too long and he jumps twice, usually finishing up floating through a gap down into the flames (a neat touch is that the halo floats down after him).

Add that to the ghoulies pushing you back and forth whenever they hit you, and you've got a game that scores high on frustration. Had it not been for my rosary beads, I might have uttered a few choice words.

Reasonable graphics are good, music and tough gameplay make this a good and competent game, but I think you're going to get bored after a while. Once you've grappled with the large beast and got a tablet or two, why bother with the rest?