Running around a grid, coloring squares and avoiding monsters that resemble telephones, hearts, lawnmowers and smiling hexagons may sound like kid stuff, but it isn't. Kid Grid, a game similar to the arcade game Amidar (but by no means easier), is one of those games that makes you think you can beat the system if you play it just one more time...

In Kid Grid, you travel around a grid, trying to cover it completely. In order to do this, you move along the lines, coloring them as you go. As you complete the perimeter of each square, the square gets filled in with color. Once you've colored all the squares, you move to the next board: another grid where you must do exactly the same thing, only faster.

Achieving the above would, in itself, be no problem, except for those four creatures intent upon killing you. These monsters wander around the grid looking for trouble and testing your nerves. You cannot kill them but they can kill you. Your only weapons against these beasts are your "stuns". A stun stops all of the beasts, rendering them, for the moment, harmless. Beware. When you stun them, you can run over them, but that doesn't earn you any points - it just makes you feel good.

The fact that the monsters have a certain hi-res beauty doesn't help at all. No matter how attractive you may find them (I became particularly attached to the lawnmower and heart as they followed me around), there seems to be no set pattern to their movements and they don't always react the same way to yours. You score 100 points for each square you fill in on the first grid, 200 on the second and so on. If you fill in one with a question mark in it, you get bonus points -but not enough to make it worthwhile. Save time and energy by filling in two squares at once.

Kid Grid has 15 different playing levels to satisfy everybody from the novice to the expert gamer. You have a choice of five difficulty settings which vary the speed of the game and you can choose between three, five and seven stuns. Even on the slowest setting with the most stuns, the game is quick enough to challenge almost anyone.

For Amidar buffs, this is the home equivalent with three differences: the grid is square, not irregular, which makes it harder to anticipate the enemies' moves; there is no bonus round (or bonus points for finishing a grid) and the monsters are more intent on killing you and less intent on having a good time.

Protect your men at all costs - you get more stuns at each new level but not more men. Use long, straight paths wherever you can.