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Imagine a world that's completely monochrome, apparently that's the way dogs see ours. So pretend you're an Appallachian Gorehound and load up Wizball. Looks a bit colourless really, doesn't it? Apart from that split pea bouncing around the screen that is. But dull it isn't.

Alright, you'll have to stop pretending you're a dog now otherwise you'll never be able to grip the joystick between your paws. Wizball is a game about a world that was dramatically drained of colour by some miserable old get called Zark who preferred black and white. Being a psychedelic young chap, that's just too grim and you try to return your world to its technicolour jollity once more.

You begin, controlling your rather grumpy-looking pea on the surface of the planet Wiz. To spread a little brightness about the place you must use your lazers to shoot chemical blobs around the various levels. Hey! It's a shoot-'em-up! True, but you'll need to use a bit of savvy on this one to turn your world back to day-glo successfully.

Your first problem comes when Wiz turns out to be a bit of a spazz when it comes to manoeuvring about the place. You need precise control of him, and to get it you need to shoot the little sputnik-type objects littered about the screen. Each hit turns them pea colour, whereupon you catch them. This starts a group of icons on the top of the screen flashing. Waggle the stick violently and you can gain extra powers. The effect is very much like Delta (more of that in Hotshots). Each of the seven icons has a different effect on your pea. It's important you pick up the first two and use them because these give you the amount of control over Wiz that is fundamental to moving precisely around the planet. You can only have two other icons on the boil at the same time. Most important of all is one which gives you a little pal or Cat (short for Catellite) who will stick with you through thick and thin. He is the key to the game, because in order to restore colour to the world you need him to catch the droplets of colour in the cauldrons at the bottom of the screen.

Furthermore, it gives the game a multi-player type angle, in that a friend can control the Cat. If you're the most unpopular person in your class, you'll have to do it on your tod (keeping the Fire button pressed allows the little guy to flit around the screen on his own) otherwise get your bessie mate round with a few cans of 7-Up and let him do the Andy Warhols. Other icon effects include smart bombs, shields and, best of all, the Cat spray which lets you spit out missiles faster than a tom cat on heat.

There are several levels to complete, some of which cannot be entered until the whole of the first level is completed (i.e. coloured in) but it's not simply a question of shooting a few red, green and blue globules, there's plenty of nasty alien forms out there waiting to paint it black once again. Shoot them down for points but my advice is to steer clear from them where possible.

Wizball is incredibly hard to master at first, mostly because it takes so long to get used to controlling old Smedley the pea. Each time you fail and run into an alien there's this nerve-wrenching crash like your mum's best china tipping onto the floor. In fact, the sound throughout is great with some typical Jean Michelle Jarre-type tunes from Martin Galway plus effects like radio interference as you move around the planet. One black mark is the Gary Moore guitar solo. Each time you blow it, a wailing noise signifies the end of your game and it drives you mad. HM fans will probably love it.

This is definitely one groovy game. The idea behind it is strictly shoot-'em-up, but enough imagination has gone into it to make it different and still keep it immensely playable. Graphics are fab, the pea cute (I like him - he looks miserable all the time) but the Cat is a star. Sensible Software are the boys responsible for the job, they brought you Parallax as well and are to be commended not only for the consistent quality of their stuff but for having a few original ideas of their own. Like, totally awesome, y'know guys!