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Every so often, a game arrives in the office without fuss or fanfare which exudes quality, cleverness, ace graphics brilliant sound and that elusive of all properties, originality.

Welcome to... Wizball.

Step right into the colourful realms of Wizworld where the Wiz and his cat lived happily until the evil Zark stole all the colour making it dull and grey.

Controlling Wizball, and its servant Catelite, you've got to restore Wizworld to its former brilliance.

Each of Wizworld's landscapes is made up of three colours. By shooting the red, green and blue colour bubbles and getting Cat to collect the droplets as they shower to the ground, it's possible to fill the cauldrons displayed at the bottom of the screen until the target colour is achieved.

When you zap an alien, green pearls are deposited on the screen. If Wizball can pass over it and pick it up it lights the first icon at the top of the screen. The Wiz can now select the feature. Obviously, the more pearls collected, the more weapons available.

Icon one: Gives more control over the Wizball, allowing it to move left and right. Antigrav halts the perpetual bouncing of the Wizball.

Icon two: Beam - the supabeam weapon. Double - both the Wiz and cat get automatic two-directional fire power.

Icon three: Catelite - Wiz gets a cat.

Icon four: Blazers - Super power for the Wiz and cat.

Icon five: Wizz Spray - mega spray protection. Cat Spray - same for the furry one.

Icon six: Shields - limited protection for Wiz and cat.

Icon seven: Smart Bomb - the ultimate killer.

The Wizball is fiendishly difficult to control first of all, almost to the point of hair-tearing frustration. If I had a gripe about this game it is that it's a little too difficult to get going.

By the way, check out how the Wizball materialises on the screen. It appears to come out of its own mouth. Clever that.

You can put spin on the ball using the joystick, hitting the fire button fires the weapons.

I've managed to get round the first three levels - you drop through holes, tubes or craters to achieve this.

This is the best Ocean game for a long time.