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While other characters such as Thing, Rockford and Jet Set Willy have gracefully gone into retirement, Monty Mole keeps his not inconsiderable snout to the grindstone in the eternal hope that yes, one day, this half-blind rodent will someday overshadow that other platform superstar - the rotund Mario.

Unfortunately the prospect of Monty sleeping bags, lunchboxes and anatomically incorrect dolls was not significantly increased by this latest surfacing of old twitchy whiskers.

The scenario is, uhm, a tad weak. You see. Monty was holidaying in the sun when - erm - aliens arrived, in a flying saucer of course, and they kidnapped him because he was the Chosen One. And what did this entail? - untold wealth and a lifetime cruising the galaxy?, a natter with Whitley Streiber?

No, none of the above. He was chosen to taken on the Five Evil Guardians, each of which is located at the end of a generally horizontally-scrolling platforms-and-ladders level packed with all sorts of villains! Well, there's a shock!

If you can swallow that, you'll be glad to know each of the multi-loaded levels has a different theme, from Klondike mines to the Orient to the Amazon rain forest. These can be attempted in any order, except for level five which can only be played when all the others have been completed. There's the usual array of baddies which must be avoided or shot - you buy weapons and food from friendly shops.

In issue 62, Phil thought Monty's comeback "disappointing", he liked the variety of the levels but thought gameplay was too tough. Robin was no happier: "the game ideas have undergone very little improvement", and the consequence was a reasonable 69% for this somewhat stale blast-from-the-past.

Now on budget, Monty has picked up little in the way of glamour, he's still a rather dull sprite and the backgrounds are reasonable but never thrilling. Nevertheless there is a big challenge, competently programmed by Core (of Rick Dangerous fame) and fans of this genre will welcome it as a bargain.