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When Peter Pan flew out of Neverland he stopped being Peter Pan and became Peter Banning, who grew up, became a stockbroker and had a couple of kids of his own. Having given up a life of swashbuckling for red braces, Pete is as surprised as the next unimaginative yuppie breadhead when his old nemesis, Captain Hook, comes along in a flying galleon and swipes his kids from under his nose.

Peter suddenly remembers who he was and soon finds himself back in Neverland where he has to once more don his green tights, reassemble his old Lost Boys posse and take on Hook and his pirate crew in ten

As well as just jumping around the place, Pete can fly! But, being out of practice, he needs the help of Tinkerbell who is fluttering around certain points in the game, shedding fairy dust. When Pete stands underneath, he gets a gauge-full of flying ability which he can use just by pressing the jump button twice.

Holding down the A button and he 'jets' (i.e. flies a bit faster) which is useful, because the longer he stays aloft the lower his flying power gets and if he's not careful he tends to fall on something sharp.

All you Mega-CD owners will no doubt be overjoyed to hear that Hook is also available on Mega-CD. It's the same game, exactly, except for the fact that there are very brief snatches of full-motion video in the intro sequence of the CD version as well as badly-acted speech between levels. The CD version also sports a very good CD soundtrack full of Action Blockbuster Movie-style themes.

After Pete beats his rival Rufio at the end of level one, Rufio hands over the golden sword that belongs to the leader of the Lost Boys. When Pete takes a swipe with this sword, it shoots a ball of pirate-busting energy across the screen.

The bad thing is that, as soon as Peter takes one hit, he drops the sword and has to go back to dagger fighting until he finds it again in the next level (maybe).

Because it's so difficult to avoid taking the odd hit in this game, it's very difficult to keep hold of this sword for longer than... ooh, what? Five seconds?

A game licensed from the semi-flop movie of the same name (which was of course based on Peter Pan and Wendy by J. M. Barry).

Peter jumps around platforms and dodges pirates to get from the left of each level to the right, where The Lost Boys are waiting to meet him.

There are things I like about this game and there are things I don't like about it.

The things I like are the graphics, which are colourful and nicely animated, and the music, which actually compares very well with the fully orchestrated soundtrack on the CD version of Hook.

Alas, the negative points leave a more lasting impression and chief amongst them is that, well, this is just another film licence turned into a platform game, which is reasonably playable but not what experts could honestly call 'fun'.

It's mostly little things that prove annoying, such as the occasions when it's impossible to avoid being hit and the times I joyously picked up the Golden Sword and lost it the next second when a pirate suddenly dropped on my head out of nowhere.

It's one of those games where you have to play through the levels a couple of times and remember what's coming up. That's not so bad usually, but Hook just doesn't reward the effort because the excitement you're expecting never appears!

I watched the Hook film last week, coincidentally enough, and despite what the critics said, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just wish I could say the same for this utterly mediocre platform game.

True, the graphics and sounds are okay, but the gameplay alternates between dull and infuriating and the originality is non-existent.

Paul's right, it's not terrible but neither is it very good and I wouldn't recommend anyone splash out their hard-earned spondoolies on this tedious game.

Presentation 57%
N. Story sequences aren't very inspiring, and there are no options.

Graphics 80%
P. Sprites and backgrounds are colourful and nicely designed. The animation's not bad either.

Sound 80%
P. A different music track for each level and mosdt of them are good.
N. Sound effects are nothing special.

Playability 69%
P. Sort of reasonably playable, in a way.
N. Nothing new and the niggly things and dodgy control system get annoying.

Lastability 65%
P. Pretty tough, even with the infinite continues.
N. It gets a bit tiresome after the fifth level.

Overall 69%
Another mediocre film becomes a mediocre platform game. Hook isn't terrible but it's not loaded with fun either.