Bumper's World

Those of a certain age will instantly recognise the influences that inspired Bumper's World. The 3D isometric playing field, the character that hops endlessly between the squares, changing the colour of them as it goes, the constant fear that you'll fall off the edge and lose a life, and the diamond-hard gameplay that cruelly mocks you, yet forces you to play just one more time.

Bumper's World is based on Q*Bert, and you youngsters should be very afraid. We were never sure why we liked Q*Bert, yet that didn't stop us feverishly throwing coins at the arcade version. It was hard (in fact, it was very hard), yet also practically impossible to stop playing.

A lot of the addictive qualities that made Q*Bert so good are present here, too. You play as Bumper, a small orange blob, who has to avoid the attentions of both purple and silver blobs on a playing field made up of squares. Hopping between them, the simple object of the game is to change the colour of all the squares by landing on them while avoiding contact with the other coloured blobs.

So far, so easy, except Bumper's World is anything but easy. With the imagination of the developer's collective minds let loose, each collection of squares turns up designed in such a way that hopping on all of them without any contact with the enemy is extremely difficult.

Avoiding purple blobs isn't exactly algebra – they start at the top of the screen and slowly work their way down – but silver robots are another matter. These hunt you down, closing in and trapping you in a corner before stealing yet another life from your rapidly depleting store.

To make things trickier still, there's an enforced time limit per stage. Normally, you'd expect these to be tolerant enough to give you time to gently amble around the level and do everything you need to do with seconds to spare, but in Bumper's World the game is all too soon shouting 'Hurry!' at you, almost mocking you for your tardiness.

There are 40 stages in total, though you're able to choose your starting level from the first 15. A nice touch, as these tend to be less sadistic than the final 15 and give you a (relatively) gentle introduction to the game's control method and gameplay.

If you find yourself needing help, there's also a fine tutorial, which even gives you hints as to the best way to deal with the silver bots (hop on a green disappearing square and then hop off just as the robot's about to join you). And you'll appreciate such tips because, like its inspiration, Bumper's World has been designed in such a way that will keep you playing – if only to see what devilish treats lay in store for you on the next stage.

Those dismissing it as an overly difficult and basic game may fail to appreciate the pleasure in such games is almost directly proportional to the challenge they offer. It's a fine balance, but Bumper's World, like Q*Bert before it, appreciates full well how far to push a player while keeping them hooked.