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How They Are (Not) Related: Part 503.

Exhibit 1: Pink Goes To Hollywood: Tragic platform fiasco by Tecmagik for the Sega Megadrive video game system. Involves taking a well-known (and lucrative) licensed cartoon character and running him through the bowels of a tedious series of platform levels. To ensure maximum variation in graphic styles with the minimum requirement of believable plotting, uses the concept of spoofing 'Hollywood' movies, with themed film levels (Robin Hood, Horror, etc.)

Licensed from one of the earliest Looney Tunes characters, Daffy Duck, with arch-enemy appearance by Yosemite Sam.

Recover Sam's awards by trudging through the walled 'movie sets' of the platform levels.

Each level is segmented into a series of sub chambers, blocked by a brick wall. Progress is only made by collecting all the time bombs in the area and taking them to the wall. Many bombs are secreted in unlikely places, frequently through secret passages obscured by walls.

Daffy Duck is often Laughter Central (during the signalmen's dispute) with its funny foes and burlesque baddies. There's a creeping cactus man, head-throwing skeletons and Porky pig archers. I laughed, laughed, laughed... and it started to hurt.

Daffy has a bubble gun. Yes, he does. Unsurprisingly, this gun blows bubbles, but perhaps more surprisingly, these bubbles are enough to disable any of the myriad foes that stand in his way. Even more incredibly, touching one of these bubbilicious baddies sends him to oblivion, thus freeing our bird to uncover more platform delights.

Keep a special Daffy eye out for the bubble power ups, which alter the weapon for the better.

Whatever happened to innovation? As we grow used to dynamic platform adventures which add new twists and turns to the established genre. Not so Daffy Duck. Watch in amazement as Daffy shambles through a series of dull stages which bear an uncanny resemblance to Tecmagic's dire Pink Goes To Hollywood.

Get really tossed off as you struggle with the unresponsive controls and stilted gameplay - which looks exactly like the Pink Panther.

I'm sorry, but there are no plus points about this bag of crap. It looks dated, it is slow to play and, despite the backdrop changes, is repetitive throughout. In this case, daffy isn't a duck - more like a turkey!

It's perhaps rather comforting that tripe like this still gets served up occasionally. Along with Chas and Dave albums and village pantos, we should always make time for amateur hour.

Sadly, at this price, Daffy In Hollywood is a more expensive pursuit than a night out at the village hall or a knees-up 'round the 'ol Joanna'.

It looks crap, sounds abysmal and has the singularly most uninspiring game structure - hunt the bombs, find the exit, repeat - that I've seen this year. To add insult to injury, the plot idea has already been covered for another unfortunate licensed creature. Call the RSPCA.

Graphics 72%
P. Daffy looks vaguely duck-like. A few nice sprites.
N. Pretty darn dull on a grand scale. Levels are cobbled together with no focal points.

Sound 49%
N. The kind of music the Megadrive moved on from two years ago. No use of Daffy's legendary wise-cracking.

Playability 57%
N. Is 'like a dead duck', to obvious. Daffy is so rudimentary as to be a waste of even a novice's time.

Lastability 54%
P. The policy of no continues make it harder than you think.
N. It's impossible to concentrate on. Sections are very short.

Value For Money 50%
N. Offers absolutely nothing new for the player or the machine's catalogue, but this isn't reflected in the price.

Overall 53%
Our advice - try Mickey Mouse, Animaniacs or a thousand other quality cartoon platformers, but not this!