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This is the successor to the first ever platform game, Miner 2049'er, and stars the same character, Bounty Bob.

It follows the same basic pattern as the original where Bob (what taste in names these people have) walks and jumps around platforms and has to cover the whole floor area of each screen.

As before it is set in Bob's mine where the evil Yukon Yohan has dumped radioactive waste and turned all the cute, furry animals, who had stored their food in the mine, into deadly radioactive mutants.

These mutants are all over the screen and can only be destroyed by jumping through one of the numerous household items which makes them vulnerable for a few seconds. This calls for good timing.

You can get around screens by a number of methods, the most obvious of which is jumping. This is variable so that once you have jumped upwards you can time when to move left or right for a long or a short leap.

However on some screens there are alternative transports, like matter transporters, hoists, slides and suction units. The last of these is a pipe through which you get sucked and sometimes is reversible. All these movers can often drop you into trouble though.

Later screens - there are 25 in all - get really tough with diabolically positioned platforms and nasty dangers such as cannons, pulverisers and even acid rain. US Gold themselves apparently haven't managed screen 25 yet - even when they start at 24!

The title screen has birds picking up letters and making them into words while the incredibly slick high score function has a factory where you can bulldoze the letters of your name into place on a conveyor belt or delete them with a mobile suction cup! Once you've entered your name your score is physically lifted onto the table by the birds who shuffle the scores around as on the title screen. Any score that drops off the table is bulldozed into a lump and booted off screen by Yukon Yohan.

Initially it looks like an unoriginal follow up, but as you progress you realise the amount of work that has gone into the program and just how difficult and addictive it really is. The high score table and special functions round off an excellent package and when you hear that it took the programmer two years to produce, you can well believe the complexity involved.

Bounty Bob strikes back with a vengeance in this fantastic follow up. Appearances can be deceptive, and that certainly holds true for this game. The high score feature is brilliant, and is the first instantly appealing point. The game itself needs some playing before discovering the finer points, such as the special messages. Once struck by this game though, you won't recover.

A Governmental health warning should be issued with this. From when I first started playing the game, I was instantly hooked. Now,two days later, I have hot and cold flushes, shaking limbs and hallucinations if I don't have a game for an hour. Although the graphics aren't stupendous, there is something in it which will keep video gamers frustrated and tantalized for weeks and weeks. This is one of the all time platform classics, and knocks spots off its predecessor. Buy it at your peril.

Part of the greatness of this game lies in the special features that you have to discover. The most important are special messages that tell you how to jump levels in the game. There are six of these messages but you'll have to find them for yourself. Once you have, it'll save you a good deal of boring repetition on the early screens.

Also on the options screen is a Special Code function which is a number you can set between 0 and 65,535. US Gold say it's to allow the programmers to toggle around inside the game. Exactly what it does is anybody's guess - we envisage quite a few hackers trying to find out!

Finally, there's an amusing routine which allows you to 'dial' (ie type-in) the telephone number of Big Five software when you need emergency help. We make no guarantees you'll get it, mind...

Presentation 93%
Brilliant high score table and title screen.

Originality 42%
The usual thing with lots of new features.

Graphics 68%
Very much the same as Miner 2049'er.

Hookability 91%
The great, wacky action forces you to play 'just-one-more-game.'

Sound 62%
Harmless title tunes and wibbly-wobbly sound effects.

Lastability 93%
25 screens which just get better and better.

Value For Money 89%
May well be as successful as its predecessor.