In fact, the idea of little green blokes with a death wish was probably what inspired him to fight semi-Irish stooge Peter McNeeley in the first place. Everyone else, however, was already sick of the series of computer puzzle games starring the wee rodents, which began several years ago on the recently resurrected Commodore Amiga and progressed to pretty much every platform around. Now, however, the well-worn theme has been given a straight-to-the-heart injection of adrenaline in the shape of 3D Lemmings for the PC CD-ROM.

Taking only the original characters and basic principle (stop a horde of lemmings from killing themselves by guiding them through a maze of equally deadly hazards), developer Clockwork Games has created a 3D masterpiece, boasting a graphics engine to rival Doom attached to some of the most fiendishly brilliant puzzles ever devised by the human brain. Taking in Egyptian tombs, space-station corridor complexes, winter sports venues, airborne DC-lOs, military assault courses, Victorian botanical gardens, computer circuit boards, and the Starship Enterprise amongst many other scenarios, 3D Lemmings is that rare beastie indeed - the computer game that gets better and better the further in you go. Even after completing 60 or so of the 80 levels, new ideas and twists are slung at you faster than your whimpering brain can handle. Yet each one is so cunning, inventive, and downright clever that you can't help hut admire it - even as you bang your bewildered head against the desk in total consternation.

3D Lemmings also toys playfully with the very notion of being a computer game. For example, the camera through which you view the action has virtual dimensions - there are places you just can't go with it - forcing you to look instead through the eyes of one of the lemmings themselves. The user interface is a huge improvement on blighted earlier versions, and the beautiful graphics and music are merely a welcome bonus (and not the raison d'être - a problem suffered by so many of the current next-generation titles) in a game that's never less than entrancing.