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Little Lucy's out in the garden playing with her pal Bin - a duck - when suddenly out of thin air the evil wizard Achacha (who?) appears and casts a spell which traps poor Lucy inside a bubble, whisking her off to another dimension. So it’s down to Bin to search the game's six levels, rescue Lucy and return her to the real world.

Easier said than done: Achacha hates it when a plan doesn't come together, so he sets his weird and very dangerous minions after this Donald Duck reject. Bin seriously lacks any offensive weapons apart from a three-strength punch.

Luckily, Bin finds weaponry (stones, bombs and guided missiles) as he travels across the varied scenery of deserts, towns and forests.

As with all bash-'em-up' exploits, poor Bin comes up against the obligatory really big nasties, but to be a complete pain Achacha has stationed two on each level. Bin must reach level six where Achacha lurks and you beat him to rescue Lucy. The arcade original with its cute graphics was very popular, and the Speccy version is graphically quite good too, except for the juddery background. The rather lengthy loader on the cassette version (there won't be disk game) is a bit of a bore. As to the game, my feeling is that while initially playable, its appeal may fade due to lack if combat options (ie just hit or shoot everything).

MARK ... 72%

'What's this? A cutiefied beat 'em up? Yup, it is. You'd expect these little Daffy Duck look-alikes to be all sweet and innocent, but instead they go round dealing the most incredible punches the Spectrum's seen. The sprites are very cartoony with lots of appealing characters and backgrounds, but unfortunately no colour: Each of the multi-load (arrggh!) levels has its own monochrome shade to enjoy. The game is quite hard with the nasty creatures being very difficult to kill, especially the big end of section ones! Luckily you can collect the odd weapon such as a water gun or bomb. Dynamite Dux is a fun beat-'em-up, for a while at least, but the lack of variety soon has you diving for the reset button.'