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Scott Adams' Florida-based company Adventure International, scored a major coup last year with the licensing of games based on Marvel comic book heroes. The Hulk and Spiderman have both proved very successful, and The Fantastic Four are next in line for computerisation.

Gremlins, however, is not written by Scott Adams, nor published by Adventure International. In fact, it was written by one of the best known British adventure writers, Brian Howarth, and published by Adventure International UK, the Birmingham-based software house which up to now has been content with producing Scott Adams' games under licence.

Quite how Mike Woodroffe, AI UK's managing director managed this little coup is anybody's guess.

Gremlins begins in a bedroom. We are some way into the movie, and all the instructions for the care of the lovable little Mogwai have been ignored. As a result, the first sight to greet the adventurer's eyes is a shambles, and will be even more of one unless the right action is taken.

The first location is very well illustrated, and is an excellent introduction to the character of the adventure. The Gremlin's arm moves up and down as he chucks deadly missiles at you, and the room is strewn with Gremlin pods and scraps of chicken from an apres-midnight snack.

The graphic design is by Teoman Irmak, who is also responsible for much of AI UK's box art, and he shows, here and elsewhere in the game, a deft touch.

The only way to go from here is down, to meet another of our green friends. You'll find yourself going up the wall before you can get past him, and pick up a very useful object. Into the kitchen, where you find two more Gremlins - but don't worry, you can wave goodbye to one, and the other will just blend into the background. A little more exercising EXAMining, should get you a friend and another weapon.

There are four Gremlins in the house (and another entity very closely related to them) but all four can be dispatched... three with ease. The fourth needs careful timing and the use of one of the special functions of the game's command analyser, which allows you to string two or more commands together using a comma or full stop.

Talking about the parser, it does seem to be fairly extensive. You can stick to traditional, two word, verb-noun, commands, or you can use remarkable full sentences. Additionally, you can GET and DROP ALL - a boon to the jaded adventurer. There are still the frustrating situations, however, where the program gives you a word in one sentence, and then says it doesn't know it on the next, as in "You are in a garage. EXAM GARAGE. I do not know the word garage." But this is perhaps being perfectionist.

Outside your house where the Gremlins are basically a very tame lot, things get rather more dangerous. This is just as it should be - a fairly easy intro, giving the player the feel of the game, before springing the nasty surprises. Some might say, lulling players into a false sense of security.

Gremlins singly, or in pairs are easy enough to deal with. When you meet a gang of them, your time is limited. I've only found one way to distract them, involving the use of bright lights.

So far I have found 33 locations, and been killed in most of them. I have found about a dozen objects, some of which proved very useful, some of which I can't figure out what to do with, even though my life depends on it.

I've emptied a swimming pool, I've kept my head in a cinema, and lost it in a department store. I've been snow-ploughed on countless occasions, and savaged to death on many others.

My objective, I understand, is to save the town by ridding it of the Gremlin menace. Well, I haven't got very far. I know that cute little Gizmo is supposed to be some help, but all he does is follow me around or dive into ventilation systems. I suspect there has to be something useful in the bar, but I can't get rid of its present occupants. There's a locked door which must hide interesting possibilities, but how do I get it open?

How much more of the adventure I have yet to find, I can't tell. There may only be one more location, or there may be a dozen. The early problems were just easy enough, the later ones are pretty tough.

Luckily, there is a save/load facility included, which I would advise all Gremlin-bashers to make full use of whenever danger threatens. There seems to be no help facility, but then that's true of many games.

All things considered, Gremlins is a very enjoyable game, with a number of problems for experienced adventurers. The sentence analyser is comprehensive, and the response time very quick. This should mean that novice adventurers will be able to get into the spirit of the game with ease, making it a good introduction.

Whether there is quite enough body to the adventure for the experienced adventurer I have yet to find out, but I think it's safe to say that Gremlins is every bit as good, as introductory adventure, as The Hulk, and very possibly better. Certainly the graphics are far superior - there's a great deal of satisfaction in watching a Gremlin's legs waving about as the rest of the little horror is minced finely.

Should be perfect for the twelve-to-fifteen age group - plenty of gore (most of it your own!).