After rushing around through all manner of strange and exotic locations, the man they call Rick Dangerous is in need of a rest. It's no mean feat trying to thwart the plans of overweight tyrants and Rick has just fought a long and grueling battle with just such a blubbery villain. But the Fat Guy will not rest easily and he is determined to make his plans to take over London to come to fruition.

Rick is just heading home, his hat pulled firmly down and his coat-collar pulled tightly up against the dismal English summer, when he hears a strange noise. Looking up he sees a fleet of... naaah, it can't be! It is! A fleet of flying saucers! And who is that at the controls of one of them? None other than the Fat Guy himself!

The saucers appear to be touching down in Hyde Park; so it's time for Rick to show his true strength. Away goes the Indiana Jones jungle clobber and pistol - out comes the nifty superhero suit and laser weapon. Time to kick that wobbly behind for good!

In this, the sequel to what is arguably the most playable platform game ever to appear on any computer screen, you must continue the adventures of suave, sophisticated and - basically - 'hard mother' adventurer, Rick Dangerous. After his earlier defeat, the Fat Guy has returned to create even more havoc. You must make use of Rick's increased power in a fight to overcome the obese dictator once and for all.

Play begins at the landing side of the Fat Guy's saucers, continuing to the icy planet of Freezia, the overgrown forests of Vegetablia and the Fat Guy's atomic mud-mines. The gameplay is in the same vein as Rick I, with some new twists. Instead of a poxy little six-shooter, Rick now carries a powerful laser gun. Also, Rick has learnt the art of sliding bombs to their target, allowing you to take obstacles out from a distance.

To complete the game, all four sections must be completed before you can take on the Fat Guy, but you can practice on any of them any time you wish. Even so, there is still quite a fight ahead. Get those lasers going. Zap! Voom! Kapow!

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The appearance of the original had a wonderful cute quality but, believe it or not, the sequel has gone even further. The graphics are more colourful and varied, with a multitude of wonderfully-animated sprites and backgrounds. The sound, too, has been given a boost. Some of the monster effects have to be heard to be believed, especially the blubbering slime monsters in the atomic mud-mines. In addition there are some superb intermission screens, showing Rick's journey between locations. The whole thing is like a cross between a matinee serial and a cartoon - can't be bad.

LASTING INTEREST

Each of the levels is quite a challenge, so even when you know what to do, you need the timing and reflexes to pull it off. The sequel has the extra advantage of allowing you to play the other levels without fighting through the earlier adventures (a difficult task for the would-be platformer), but it's still by no means easy. Weeell, it's easier to complete the levels than it is to stop playing!

JUDGEMENT

By now, Rick Dangerous has earned its place in the hall of fame for classic platform games, but just when everyone was taking it for granted, along comes the sequel - and it's even better than the original. The graphics have been polished up, the sound effects are funnier and the gameplay is more fluid and enjoyable. With a little thought all the puzzles can be worked out (and some of the solutions are extremely strange), so no more of the 'getting stuck behind the same guard' syndrome!

Even if you haven't played the original game (where have you been?) Rick Dangerous II is well worth a generous slab of any gamesplayer's time. But a generous slab could have you sitting in front of your computer for days without rest. You have been warned... but buy it anyway.

Just because the word platform immediately conjures up images of 8-bit machines and hand helds, doesn't mean you're in for some dodgy ported software, as anyone who played the first Rick Dangerous will tell you. Don't let the software snobs get to you, this might not be spec busting and you don't need a British Library size memory expansion to run it, but it is nonetheless, a bloody good game.

Rick Dangerous 2 finds our inspector Clouseau lookalike stumbling onto another mission to save humanity. Rick is having some embarrassing problems being the only chap nubile enough to take on an entire alien invasion, in a plot that takes him from Hyde Park (although I've walked around the Serpentine, I've never seen anything quite like this) to Ice Caverns and Deepest Jungle, this is an adventure scenario that makes Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade look like a Club 18-30 holiday.

In his way are a myriad of booby traps, obstacles, puzzles and downright unfriendly aliens. To get through each level requires meticulous planning, a lot of practice and the exercising of more than a brain cell or two.

Whereas most platform games are full of patterns that repeat themselves and hence get dull and repetitive quickly, there's something new at every corner in this game. The programmers have surpassed themselves in cramming every screen with novel ideas. To beat them you'll have to negotiate some quite outlandishly complicated combinations of trapdoors, forcefields, pits, moving platforms, elevators and machinery I've ever come across. I'd set aside a few weeks to find a way through this piece of software.

The complexity and ingenuity of the game puts Rick Dangerous in the screenstar category for gameplay. Graphically and musically the game is no more than the right side of ordinary, yet it still manages to be one of the most compelling games of the year.

Personally I often find platform games pretty tiresome, but Rick Dangerous 2 has had me converted, although I've sweated a little more than I like to admit defusing some of the devices that lay in the path of Mr Dangerous.

Conventional wisdom is that sequels are invariably bad, but Rick Dangerous 2 is the exception that proves the rule. I pity the person who has to work their way through all five levels for the Play To Win section. And you thought being a games reviewer was such an easy life!

The prat with the hat is back! Err, except this time he's lost his hat (hmph!), but then what do you expect from world famous explorer, sticky label collector and hopeless imbecile, Richard Dangerous?

To be fair, he's been having a pretty harrowing time of it lately. Immediately after returning from his Indiana Jones-Style treasure hunt in the original Rick game, he found his native London invaded by aliens, the very same short, green and gruesome creatures he encountered at the end of his first computer adventure.

Slipping into his flashy superhero costume, complete with flowing cape, he dashed to Hyde Park (tripping over his cape only two or three times in the process) where the aliens had landed their vast spaceship. Gritting his teeth and setting his jaw, he strode purposefully into the portable fortress, determined to right the wrongs the aliens had begun.

Even with his over-inflated ego near bursting point, Rick knew that single-handedly saving civilization wouldn't be quite as easy as falling off a particularly slippery log. So he came prepared with a limited charge laser gun and a number of short-fuse bombs.

The UFO and the four levels which follow it are in the form of a scrolling maze, packed full of defence systems and booby traps. Initially, these are lasers and electrical sparks, some of which can be deactivated by a kick to the appropriate nearby switch. Switches can also move elevator platforms, giving access to new parts of the maze, but beware - some trigger booby traps.

Various creatures patrol the mazes and can be zapped with Rick's gun or blown up with a bomb - either planted or slid along the ground. Bombs can also clear away crates blocking Rick's path, sometimes opening rooms containing bullet, bomb, and life supply pods.