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Let's get this straight - Han shot first and ET's pursuers carried guns - but the jury is still out on Deckard's voice-over/the happy ending/whether he was a replicant.

So what should we make of this revisionist-history re-work of the 1984 ZX Spectrum game Frank'n'Stein? Upon its initial release this game was one of many games that could trace their heritage to Donkey Kong and Miner 2049er. The player is asked to guide Professor Stein to collect (in order) the items required to build his monster. Baddies follow fixed paths and hinder progress, and a timer ticks down. So far, so Miner Willy. The difference here is that our hero has no 'jump' button, but rather has to use the action button to trigger poles, springs and teleporters in order to navigate between platforms and avoid death-by-surreal-baddy. Other special floor tiles either slow down, or in some way impede the Professor's progress.

Upon loading this 'Re-booted' edition of Frank'n'Stein, little initially seems to have changed. It may have a (much better) loading screen, the vu-meter timer has been replaced by a digital timer and the eagle-eyed might spot differences in animation, but generally Stage 1 feels the same.

Stage 2 however is a different kettle of fish – whereas the even numbered stages previously involved a climb from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen with easy-to-avoid barrels being thrown, in the re-boot the even numbered levels become much more 'Donkey Kong' like. Primarily this is due to the Professor gaining the ability to jump! On the odd numbered levels the Prof returns to his collect-em-up shenanigans and ignores his new found jumping skills. Games don't need to have an internal logic, do they? Despite the schizophrenic nature of the game (effectively the player swaps between levels which now have two even-more-distinct game styles) it makes for a dramatic improvement over the old-fashioned version where the even numbered levels were much less satisfying.

In 2011 the release schedule for the ZX Spectrum is less hectic than in 1984, and Frank'n'Stein is less likely to be overlooked than it was amongst a plethora of other contemporary platform games, and it has enough of an identity to still feel relevant for a quick play. Graphics and presentation look gloriously 'of their time' – making for a colourful and clean game, although hardly the most beautiful or groundbreaking seen on a Spectrum. The important thing here is that the game is still 'fun', and has been improved rather than tainting our childhood memories (Take note George Lucas!)

Overall, Frank'n'Stein is a better game for its Re-booting, and if you have not played the original then this new version is the one to play. However, be prepared to be repeatedly beaten – this game is hard, and the 27 years between releases have not tamed down the brutal difficulty in any way. Timing and planning to navigate levels are required (and I suspect that emulator quick-saves will be the order of the day to see the later levels).

Fans of (more famous) single screen platform games such as Donkey Kong, Burger Time, Manic Miner, Chuckie Egg, Bounty Bob et al should definitely check this out.