Canyon Climber is a multi-screen game of timing that has clearly been inspired by Donkey Kong. It's not quite as demanding as Donkey Kong but the concept is appealingly bizarre.


Picture this: you're a mad anarchist running amok in the wild and woolly West. Armed with a backpack full of dynamite, it is your improbable mission to blow up a bridge and then to try to escape. The bridge has four levels on which you plant your dynamite. Ladders lead up and down. Killer goats patrol the levels and you have to jump over them... or die. You jump by pressing the fire button on the joystick. At the top of the canyon, on the right side, there is a plunger. If you reach it alive, kaboom! No more goats, no more bridge, nothing except Indians.


In screen two, you're in Injun territory. You are running up a ramp toward a ladder, but there is an Indian here who keeps busy by shooting arrows at you. You can jump the arrows or protect yourself by grabbing a shield that's just above your head.


Screen three is perhaps the most bizarre of all and worth playing just to see it. You are scrambling across a mesa, jumping over crevices. Just so you'll have less than a sporting chance, there are some angry birds flying overhead, dropping... you guessed it. Except this ain't ordinary bird doo, 'cause it'll kill ya!


At the top of the mesa, a bugle sound will herald your success. But just so you don't get a swelled head, a goat from screen number one will roar out and butt you right off and you'll find yourself once again back at the bottom of the bridge in screen one.


I'd rate this game short-term addictive.


On screen two, press the control button as if to jump arrows even when you're holding a shield. That way, if your shield evaporates as an arrow is about to skewer you, you'll fly over it.