CROAKER

MAKER: Kuma/Hudson Soft
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £6.95

Fairly duff arcade shoot-out. You (looking more like a moth into military chic than any kind of frog - but let it pass) are stuck in an alley drawn with the most primitive and confusing kind of 3D technique. Along this low-res byway come bouncing various Kermits and giant eyeballs and so forth. Naturally, you must shoot them.

It's an uninspiring task, even though the red ball projectiles that pop from your antennae when you press the fire button are one of the few neat things about this game. Another neat thing is the bouncing effect contrived for the objects in your path. The blue "mystery cannonballs" that come bowling along with quite monotonous regularity are almost too neat, and invariably blow my uniformed moth to smithereens.

Without a joystick, controls are the clumsy iJLM (or WADX) keys that I always find particularly frustrating. But even were the manoeuvring easier, this would still be nothing more than a lifeless, boring game.