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Guide Bubsy through the level, bouncing on Woolies to destroy them and collecting yarn balls.

Rayon is an unhappy world. Long ago the people were contented; leaves rustled in the breeze; lambs gambolled in the field and people went to work in natural fibres. But on Rayon there was a popular blood sport - sheep hunting. The craze became massively popular, and soon the species was extinct. No more wool. Then came the centuries of misery - polyester shirts, nylon Y-fronts (with brown piping) and welly boots. It's all the people had left to wear!

The aggressive citizens of Rayon were so desperate for something soft against the skin that they sent their forces - the 'Woolies' to conquer other planets and plunder their yarn. Enter Bubsy, the super-hero of super-stitch, who would rather be knitted into a toilet-roll cover than let the Woolies succeed. Aid him in his battle, over sixteen varied levels.

Bubsy's control is fine-tuned to allow jumps of all sizes. Bubsy gives a fair leap with the normal jump button, but if the pounce button is held, Bubdy soars into the air and floats down to earth spread-eagled fashion, rather than plummeting to his doom. Long distances may be covered in this soar mode.

Bubsy finds hazards as well as bonuses in the crates. Some boxes contain slippery bananas. One slip on one of these and Bubsy careers uncontrollably. Crates marked with tacks spill their puncturing contents on the floor, leaving Bubsy feeling rather deflated.

Bubsy's main foes are Woolies - strange two-legged creatures with expressive features. On early levels Woolies are stationary, but as the game progresses they begin to leap about, blow eggs at Bubsy and generally make a nuisance of themselves. Contact with Woolies means death, unless you land on top of them. Other demises occur when you fall too far, run into water or puncture yourself on spikes. Ooyah!

If progress seems impossible, move into the scenery. Doorways and cave entrances pepper the landscape. These form a series of warps between levels and secret locations. Mapping the unpredictable routes these portals take you is recommended, since many are more of a hindrance than help.

Maybe I'm not quite sick to the death of derivative platform games yet but that's what Bubsy is. The programmers have tried to take many of the basic Sonic ideas and improve on them - I don't think they've improved anything.

However, the game does have its moments, particularly playable levels like the country zone and the fairground. Unfortunately, the best levels of the game tend to be near the start, the game then runs out of steam, and many of the later zones are tricky but routine.

The humour is also not very funny and the character quite unendearing. Accolade really shouldn't have wasted so much memory on sampled speech and put more into the play features.

It's still an okay game, with probably a few weeks' challenge, but inferior to the likes of Cool Spot and its peers.

Bubsy suffers from an innocuous but sometimes fatal malady - overhype, particularly in America. Standing alone, it's not a bad little game with some wonderful animation and some good, solid, fun gameplay (even if it does become rather dull eventually). But if you put it in the ring with Sonic, which Accolade has effectively done, Bubsy doesn't stand a chance!

One of the most annoying features of the game is the way that if you rev him up to high speed he usually end up dead because you can't avoid bumping into one of those gormless enemies - when Sonic gathers speed, at least he has somewhere to go!

The backdrops are bright and cheerful, the music is irritating beyond belief (thankfully you can turn it off) - all in all, it's not a bad little game. I wouldn't highly recommend it, but it might be worth a look.

Presentation 81%
P. A useful password option, and the chance to turn the music off, thankfully! N. Every time the game end, you must input the password to restart at higher levels.

Graphics 92%
P. Great-looking Bubsy sprite who dies in all manner of clever ways. Some tasty backdrops. N. Occasionally the enemy sprites look a tad 'chubby' and uninteresting. The game has a sparse, unexciting look in places.

Sound 67%
P. Sound effects are generally excellent and suit the game well. Lots of speech samples. N. The music is awful! A lot of memory has been spent on Bubsy's 'witticisms' that could have gone elsewhere.

Playability 84%
P. The early levels have lots of features to explore, the action is untaxing but initially involving. N. There are gameplay flaws, like enemies firing from off-screen and slow scrolling.

Lastability 76%
P. Passwords are only given every third level and some of the higher levels are tricky. N. Bubsy shouldn't present a problem to seasoned platformers.

Overall 80%
Good in many respects, Bubsy is nothing like the world-beater it purported to be. Players who like safe, unsurprising gameplay are in for a treat. However, games like Tiny Toon Adventures and Sonic II.